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TODAY: Thursday, March 1, 2018 - 2:00 PM (Eastern)
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Confirmation Number: 13677118
Please join us for a conference call TODAY with Dr. Francisco Monaldi, a Fellow in the Latin American Initiative & Energy Economics at the Baker Institute at Rice University.
We’ll discuss the latest on the situation on the ground in Venezuela as well as developing White House announcement of possible new sanctions.
The Trump Administration is developing potential new energy sanctions on Venezuela as the Maduro regime has scheduled a presidential election for April 22. The US and nearly every country in Latin and South America do not recognize the upcoming election has legitimate.
As we reported in a February 8 client note, President Trump has already provided the green light for energy sanctions on Venezuela but the actual scope of sanctions is still being developed by White House staff.
On an early February trip through Latin and South America, Secretary of State Tillerson said the US was seriously considering energy sanctions.“The situation is becoming quite dire in Venezuela, so one of the aspects of considering sanctioning oil is what effect would it have on the Venezuelan people, and is it a step that might bring this to an end, to a more rapid end,” Tillerson said. “Not doing anything to bring this to an end is also asking the Venezuelan people to suffer for a much longer time.”
Venezuela exported about 500,000 barrels a day to the US gulf refiners in January but down from about 800,000 from a year ago. Sales of Venezuelan crude to US refiners provides the cash lifeline for the Maduro regime. US sanctions will likely impact those US gulf refiners that will have trouble securing replacement of similar heavy crude. In addition, it’s unlikely that Venezuela will find a replacement buyer of its crude exports to the US, and the physical disruption of this crude from the market will provide a boost to oil prices.
