PARIS, February 17. /TASS/. Washington maintains its influence on Caracas through control over Venezuelan oil sales, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright told reporters at the conference in the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
"I started a dialogue with Venezuelans about how to do something that benefits both of us here. They obviously want to be able to sell their oil, so we now control the sale of that oil, but all of that oil goes into an account in their name, and that money goes back down to Venezuela," Wright said. "And so what it allows us to do is to have enormous influence over their behavior," he stressed.
"So back to oil production. It's a little less than a million barrels a day today. I think you'll see several 100,000 barrels a day of additional production by the end of this year," the official said, referring to oil production in Venezuela. "Then, of course, in the coming years, much more dramatic increases are possible," Wright added.
"The US interest in Venezuela is mostly geopolitics," the secretary said, speaking about the course of the Washington administration in respect of the country. "The goal is to use energy, commerce and trade, not American soldiers, not American tax dollars, to try to fix a hemispheric problem that's hurt our country <...>," Wright added.