crude

Caracas, July 13, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government has approved a new set of oil industry regulations that prioritize the “economic and financial viability” of private sector investment.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed the statute on Wednesday, July 8, and it was published in the National Gazette. Rodríguez hailed the directive a “historic step” that will “transform our energy reserves into development.”

“These norms establish clear rules, greater legal certainty, and a favorable environment for the cooperation between the [Venezuelan] state and national and foreign capital,” the acting president said.

Western oil executives and Trump officials have aggressively lobbied to tailor the new rules to their interests after seeing preliminary drafts. White House energy advisor Jarrod Agen stated that he had contact with Rodríguez and her team “multiple times a day” to offer input on the regulations and contract models.

The 122-article text establishes the framework for the implementation of the reformed Hydrocarbon Law approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly in late January. The legislative overhaul replaced the 2001 Hydrocarbon Law approved by former President Hugo Chávez and subsequent decrees that established a leading role for the Venezuelan state in the energy sector.

Under the new law, private sector companies can take over oilfield operations and sales as minority joint venture partners, or via concession-type agreements.

The legislation also slashed royalties and fiscal contributions. The former was capped at 30 percent, and a former extraction tax was replaced by an “integrated hydrocarbon tax” with a 15 percent maximum.

However, the new statute defines a “combined contribution” of royalties and the integrated tax ranging from 20 percent for undeveloped greenfields to 35 percent for currently active brownfields, meaning an effective 10 percent further reduction from the 45 percent maximum defined under the law.

Companies are eligible for additional 5 percent discounts in their combined contribution if they run offshore operations or if their business plans include “building or amplifying crude transformation, upgrading, or refining plants.”

Income tax was lowered from 50 to 34 percent for greenfields under the 2026 legislation. But the regulations establish that companies can request further reductions to their royalty, integrated tax, and income tax contributions if necessary to attain “economic equilibrium.” The decisions will be taken by the Venezuelan executive on a case-by-case basis without any mandatory oversight from the National Assembly.

The reformed energy law allowed legal disputes to be settled by international arbitration bodies, with Venezuelan officials promising  “legal certainty” to investors. The new norms permit arbitration re via “alternative mechanisms,” with analysts suggesting that the vague language aims to avoid any clashes with US sanctions.

The directive also set an obligation to capture “associated gas” in oil extraction operations, which can be used for reinjection or transformed into cooking gas. Historically, it has been mostly flared. Oilfield operators are likewise mandated to secure their electricity supply. The Venezuelan National Assembly is presently working on reforms to open electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and commercialization to the private sector.

The enacted framework goes on to establish environmental responsibilities, oversight mechanisms, and penalties for non-compliance. State oil company PDVSA is not mentioned at all in the text.

Venezuelan oil expert Blas Regnault told Venezuelanalysis that the new norms risk turning the oil sector into an “enclave.”

“The regulations organize oil activity but do not guarantee that it will be integrated into the national economy,” he explained. Regnault warned that empowering corporations to negotiate royalties on an individual case-by-case basis “turns a sovereign right into a flexible variable in a contractual regime” in what is an “unusual” practice for oil-producing nations.

“Royalties are not taxes. They represent the sovereign right of the owner of the resource, and thus should be universally established, not negotiated project by project,” he underscored.

The pro-business opening of Venezuela’s most important industry has seen major Western corporations, including Chevron, Shell, and BP, ink agreements or memoranda of understanding with the acting Rodríguez administration to develop new projects or establish more favorable conditions in existing ones.

For its part, the Trump administration has kept in place sanctions against the Venezuelan oil industry, though it has issued a number of licenses allowing US and Western enterprises to enter into agreements with Caracas. However, the waivers mandate that all royalty, tax, and dividend payments be deposited in a US Treasury-run account, while also blocking transactions with firms from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

The maintenance of US sanctions has slowed new investment, while the Trump administration has so far returned only a fraction of Venezuelan export revenues to Caracas. 

The dire economic situation is indexed in persistent inflation and stagnating oil production. Venezuela’s crude output plateaued after four consecutive months of growth, with June’s 1.070 million barrel-per-day (bpd) output virtually unchanged from May, according to OPEC secondary sources. The figure remains the highest since early 2019.

For its part, PDVSA reported 1.187 million bpd in June, up from 1,179 million bpd in May. Direct and secondary measurements have historically differed over disagreements on the inclusion of condensates and natural gas liquids.

The South American country’s main crude extraction areas, in the eastern and western regions, were largely unaffected by June 24’s double earthquake, with no major disruptions to operations reported.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.t issued a number of licenses allowing US and Western enterprises to enter into agreements with Caracas. However, the waivers mandate that all royalty, tax, and dividend payments be deposited in a US Treasury-run account, while also blocking transactions with firms from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

Venezuela’s oil production has stagnated after four consecutive months of growth, with June’s 1.070 million barrel-per-day (bpd) output virtually unchanged from May, according to OPEC secondary sources. The figure remains the highest since early 2019.

For its part, PDVSA reported 1.187 million bpd in June, up from 1,179 million bpd in May. Direct and secondary measurements have historically differed over disagreements on the inclusion of condensates and natural gas liquids.

The South American country’s main crude extraction areas, in the eastern and western regions, were largely unaffected by June 24’s double earthquake, with no major disruptions to operations reported.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

Front-month gold futures plunged below $4,000/oz Monday after fresh strikes between the U.S. and Iran sent oil prices surging higher, reviving concerns about inflation and the potential for tighter monetary policy.

The latest escalation and President Trump’s declaration that the

A review of a disability benefit is not expected to make “crude proposals” on changes to claimants’ payments, the minister leading the report has said.

Sir Stephen Timms told the BBC his interim review of personal independence payments (Pip) found the benefit was not “fit for purpose” and promised “fundamental change” in recommendations due in the autumn.

The disability minister said the “sustainability” of spending on the benefit, which is forecast to rise to more than £41bn by 2030, was “going to be a concern as we reach these decisions”.

Last year, the UK government asked Sir Stephen to review whether Pip was “fair and fit for the future”. His initial report will be published on Thursday.

The interim report concludes Pip is not working for millions of disabled people or the government, and suggests a sweeping overhaul of the assessment system is needed.

In evidence submitted to the review, Pip claimants described the assessment process as “dehumanising” for disabled people and a barrier to work.

The report also highlights the steep increase in the number of Pip recipients in recent years and the forecasted rise in spending on the benefit.

Pip is a benefit people with long-term illnesses and disabilities can claim if they need help with extra costs associated with living, work and care.

Eligibility for Pip is determined through an assessment.

Under the current assessment system, claimants are scored on a zero to 12 scale by a health professional on everyday tasks such as washing, getting dressed and preparing food.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Stephen said Pip “does a very important job in helping people meet the additional costs of disability”.

But the minister said disabled people had told the review the assessment can be “demeaning” and “deter you from participating in society”.

“We’ve also found that it hasn’t kept pace with changing understanding of health and disability over the last 13 years since the benefit was introduced, so we do think quite fundamental change is needed,” Sir Stephen.

As of April this year, there were about four million claimants entitled to Pip in England and Wales.

The number of Pip recipients has risen considerably since the benefit was introduced in 2013, with the increase fuelled by claimants citing mental health conditions in recent years.

June 16 (UPI) — Oil prices have fallen to their lowest levels since the start of the Iran war with Brent crude oil declining to less than $80 per barrel on Tuesday.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, traded for $79.96 on Tuesday morning. It is the first time since the war started that it has traded below $80 per barrel. It has since inched above the $80 mark to about $80.19.

The price of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, has dipped by about 3.8% on Tuesday to $77.71 per barrel.

Tuesday marks the second consecutive day of descending oil prices spurred along by Sunday’s announcement that the United States and Iran have come to terms on a peace agreement. Prior to the announcement, oil prices had risen by about 14% since the start of the war.

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Feb. 28. The United States later instituted a naval blockade on the strait, stopping any vessels using Iranian ports.

The terms of the peace deal have not been made public. The United States and Iran have electronically signed a preliminary agreement and are expected to officially sign off on the peace deal on Friday.

While oil prices have fallen significantly, gas prices have moved more slowly, dropping by three cents on Tuesday. The national average for a gallon of regular-grade gas is $4.04, AAA reports. Gas prices remain elevated by about 36% since the start of the war.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the traffic on the Strait of Hormuz would resume immediately. However, it may still take weeks for operators on the strait to actually allow tankers to pass through.

About 20% of the Middle East oil trade uses the Strait of Hormuz.

June 2 (Asia Today) — U.S. crude oil exports reached a record high in May as demand from Asian and European refiners surged, market data showed.

U.S. crude exports averaged 5.6 million barrels per day in May, surpassing the previous record of 5.2 million barrels per day set in April, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.

The increase was driven in part by a widening price gap between West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude, and Brent crude, the global benchmark.

The spread between WTI and Brent widened to as much as $20.69 a barrel in March, the largest gap in 13 years. In April, the gap averaged $8.86 a barrel, wider than the prewar average of $4.85.

Supply disruptions in the Middle East caused by the war involving Iran also prompted refiners in Asia and Europe to seek more U.S. crude as an alternative.

Asia imported an average of 2.45 million barrels per day, making it the largest destination for U.S. crude for a second consecutive month.

Japan was the biggest Asian buyer, importing 808,000 barrels per day, up 32% from the previous month.

Europe ranked second, importing 2.4 million barrels per day.

Italy led European demand with imports of 335,000 barrels per day. Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey and Greece also made rare purchases of U.S. crude, according to the data.

Industry analysts expect U.S. crude exports to decline from June. Consulting firm Energy Aspects projected exports would fall to an average of 4.9 million barrels per day in June and 4.6 million barrels per day in July.

Sources and analysts said declining WTI inventories in the United States are expected to encourage domestic storage and reduce export volumes.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260602010000543