Russia and its biggest obsession: Venezuelan oil

Nicolás Maduro He looks around and does not find a lot of allies. To the soldiers who are swaying and still holding him, delivered to a former agent of the KGB which is thousands of kilometers away: Vladimir Poutine. The president of Russia he knows the weaknesses and especially the needs of the Latin dictator, whom he has at his mercy.

In all international forums, the envoys of the Kremlin they say they support the successor of Hugo Chávez, that they illustrate as a victim of an international movement led since the House Blanca. They repeat the indignation: in Venezuela (almost) peace reigns, they risk without blushing.

The booklet is known and repeated as a mantra by detractors of "the empire". S? He even tried again Maduro in the last hours to blame the United States by the blackout that left 70% of the country without electricity. The result: at least a dozen dead. The underestimation of the intelligence of the population does not find borders.

Ironic A historically imperial country like Russia is preparing to seize the most absolute of Venezuelan badets: oil. At that time, Moscow benefits from the fragility of the regimemaking it more and more dependent on their loans and their promises.

In this unequal offer, they are PDVSA, Citgo Oil and Rosneft. The first is the Venezuelan oil company owned by the state. The second, the subsidiary of the latter in the States United. The third, the Russian energy company dependent on Kremlin and managed by Igor Sechin, close to trust Putin.

Alarms sounded Moscow. It is that Rosneft He had the Venezuelan barrels to slowly repay the debt he had proposed in 2016. Sechin ego-alternator Putin He knows that he has an badet in his sleeve. This is the guarantee that Maduro signed him – an authentic blank check – to retain 49.9% of Citgo. That was for a $ 1,500 million loan.

Those who are waiting for operations around Citgo they watch the calendar. On April 27, the Venezuelan oil company must pay $ 71 million in interest on the 2020 bonus. Juan Guaidó, acting president, asked Washington to open a special account – not provided for by Treasury sanctions – to comply with the obligation. The subsidiary located at Texas has sufficient funds to avoid fault of this title, the only one issued by Venezuela who has not yet fallen into default.

Maduro He would not worry about trying to pay. Remember to drop the bonus by allowing Rosneft -c & # 39; is to say, Russia– control Citgo, the other 50.1% of the company would enter a long-term legal vacuum involving large creditor companies like ConocoPhillips -the third largest American oil company-and the Canadian Crystallex. Friends are friends.

But it was not the only detachment that the dictatorship had with Rosneft and his employer, Sechin. Through her Russia controls many of the most prolific oil extraction fields in Venezuelan soil through PDVSA. It has 40% of Petromonagasof Petroperijá and of Petrovictoria; 32% of Petromiranda; 27% of Boqueron and 32 percent of the block Junín 6. Also the exploitation of gas fields. Again, friends are friends.