Keywords: Venezuela Sanctions, USA-Venezuela Deal, India-Venezuela, Venezuelan Oil
Venezuela is a South American country with a population of 2.82 crore (2021). It’s an oil and natural gas-rich country and also part of the “Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries” (OPEC). Statista report of 2023 says Venezuela’s crude oil reserve more than triple from its previous decade i.e., from 99.4 billion barrels in 2010 to 304 billion barrels in 2021. The USA imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil, gold, mining, petroleum products, banking, and industries as well as on its President Nicolas Maduro in 2019. Due to the financial sanctions of 2017 by the USA, the common people of Venezuela suffered their daily intake of calories reduced, an increase in diseases, an increase in the mortality rate of children and adults, millions of people left the country. This all happened due to Nicolas’s Maduro dictatorship policies. President Nicolas imprisoned the democratically elected opposition without any reason, deprived the common people of medicine and food, human rights violations, and triple-digit inflation.
The USA Treasury Department last month eased the sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gold export. Joe Biden’s government eased sanctions after Venezuela’s President and Opposition parties dealt with the election of 2024. The USA’s new policy allows OPEC Country Venezuela to produce and export oil to its chosen markets for the upcoming six months. The USA Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said that the President of Venezuela has to release its opposition parties by the end of November otherwise sanctions will be reimposed.
The ease of sanction is a new opportunity for India. India is the world’s third-largest oil importer as well as consumer. Russia sold discounted crude oil to India and became a top seller. India paid oil prices not in dollars but in Indian currency. Now, Russia has billions of Indian rupees which has no use for them. When India and Russia trade, India has a trade deficit. Russia wants the payments of oil in the Chinese Yuan. Due to political and economic tension between India and China, India rejected the demand for payments in the Chinese Yuan. The recent war between Israel and Hamas engaged the whole Gulf countries. It means that India has to diversify its oil imports.
Venezuela is a good option for oil import for India. India and Venezuela have a neutral foreign policy. Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh said India may buy Venezuelan oil if it will be cheap. The cheap oil price will save billions of dollars. Indian companies like ONGC and Reliance were already engaged with Venezuelan oil before the sanction. But there are challenges to it i.e., distance, its oil has high acid content, and it has a complex procedure to filter.
WRITTEN BY – ANIRUDH MODI, COLLEGE- MAHARISHI UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, NOIDA, U.P., A 5th SEMESTER LEGAL JOURNALISM INTERN AT LEGAL VIDHYA
