Venezuela is reportedly planning to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in a significant blow to the oil cartel it founded in 1960 alongside Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Caracas has been discussing the move with U.S. officials, but no final decision has been reached yet, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, another report by Axios on Thursday stated that the Trump administration is in talks with Venezuela’s interim government about acquiring a stake in the country’s massive oil resources. While the details have not been finalized, the discussions are happening over a dozen productive oil fields and do not involve all of Venezuela’s 300 billion barrels of proven reserves.
The dozen oil fields contain close to 90 million barrels of proven reserves, which were controlled by past Venezuelan leaders, many of whom have been indicted. Some of these oil fields had their interests controlled by China.
In exchange for U.S. ownership, Caracas would benefit from private firms, including U.S. oil majors, developing the fields, bringing in increased oil revenue to the South American country.
