CARACAS, February 27. /TASS/. Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela) urged the U.S. to join the efforts of a number of countries to achieve stability in the global oil market.
"The United States government must join and work together in order to achieve world oil stability," president of PDVSA and People’s Minister of Petroleum Manuel Quevedo said as quoted by a statement the company released on Wednesday.
Quevedo was speaking in Ryadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, where he is to participate in the 9th symposium on Energy Outlook sponsored by OPEC and the International Energy Agency. Venezuela chairs OPEC this year.
"To attack OPEC, to try to divide its members, to pretend to give instructions by means of social networks, is very far away from future energy perspectives," he said.
Quevedo also stressed that the actions of the White House in relation to the US-registered subsidiary of PDVSA - Citgo Petroleum "negatively affect the global hydrocarbon market".
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Citgo had decided to cancel the status of PDVSA subsidiary. This was done not to fall under the sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Venezuela. Citgo previously announced a change in the line-up of its board of directors, following the decision of the opposition-controlled Venezuelan parliament.
Washington is not shy about the fact that it is trying to bring the maximum possible pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro so that he would agree to hold early presidential elections. On January 28, the administration of the head of the White House, Donald Trump, imposed sanctions against PDVSA.
Situation in Venezuela
On January 23, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition Juan Guaido, whose appointment as parliamentary speaker had been annulled by the Supreme Court two days before that, declared himself as acting president. On the same day, the United States recognized him as acting head of state. So did the Lima Group countries except for Mexico, the Organization of American States, and a number of other countries. On January 28, Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA and put some of Venezuela’s assets in US banks under Guaido’s control.
Some European countries, including Britain, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and France on January 26 said they would recognize Guaido as interim president, if Maduro refused to call an early election within eight days. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey came out in Maduro’s support.