COP, Venezuela, And Not On My Bingo Card -- January 12, 2023

This certainly was not on my bingo card today. LOL.

Before getting started, review this post to make sure you know the players.

Link to The WSJ here.

From the linked article:

ConocoPhillips, which abandoned Venezuela after its assets were nationalized in 2007, is now open to a deal to sell the country’s oil in the U.S. as a way to recover the close to $10 billion it is owed by Venezuela. 

In what are preliminary talks between ConocoPhillips and national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, the two sides are looking at a proposal that could allow the Houston-based company to load, transport and sell Venezuela’s oil in the U.S. on behalf of PdVSA, as the state oil company is known.

This would give ConocoPhillips a chance to recover the money it lost in the country and help the U.S. meet its energy needs. 

The arrangement would help Venezuela end the commercial isolation that was caused by U.S. sanctions leveled against the oil industry in 2019, and further open the U.S. market to its crude. The U.S. had historically been Venezuela’s largest oil market until the sanctions, with several big Gulf Coast refineries designed to run its heavy crude. 

But a sharp yearslong fall in Venezuelan production curbed supply. Then sanctions, imposed by the U.S. in response to human rights violations and democratic backsliding, broke off trade.