Venezuela acting president Delcy Rodriguez signs oil privatization law

Venezuela’s performing president, Delcy Rodriguez, has signed a legislation reorganizing the nation’s oil sector and opening it as much as privatization. The transfer reverses a core coverage of the socialist motion that has dominated the nation for greater than 20 years.

Rodriguez’s coverage shift, geared toward luring overseas buyers wanted to restructure the trade, comes lower than a month after the US captured former Venezuelan dictatorial chief Nicolás Maduro. The performing president, who served as Maduro’s vice chairman earlier than his arrest, has confronted strain from the Trump administration, which has been monitoring Venezuela’s oil trade after imposing sanctions.

On January 10, Trump obtained almost twenty prime officers from the oil and gasoline sector on the White Home. He mentioned US power corporations will make investments $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s “rotting” oil infrastructure and increase manufacturing to document ranges.

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Venezuela’s performing President Delcy Rodriguez takes half in a gathering with a replica of a brand new legislation on the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday, January 29, 2026, after lawmakers authorised laws opening the nation’s oil sector to privatization. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Picture)

That very same day, Trump signed an govt order entitled “Safeguarding Venezuelan Oil Revenues for the Good of the American and Venezuelan Folks,” which prohibited U.S. courts from seizing Venezuelan oil revenues held in U.S. Treasury accounts.

“We’re speaking concerning the future. We’re speaking concerning the nation that we’re going to give our kids,” Rodríguez mentioned of the reform, in accordance with The Related Press.

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Staff of Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA rally in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday, January 29, 2026, to assist an oil reform legislation proposed by performing President Delcy Rodriguez to loosen state management and open the trade to non-public and overseas funding. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Picture)

The laws ends state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA’s (PDVSA) monopoly over oil manufacturing and gross sales, in addition to pricing, and permits personal corporations to take management, the AP reported.

The brand new legislation states {that a} personal firm “shall assume the complete administration of the actions at its personal price, expense and threat, after demonstrating its monetary and technical capability by a marketing strategy authorised by” the Venezuelan Oil Ministry, in accordance with the AP. Nonetheless, the newspaper added that the legislation leaves management over hydrocarbon reserves managed by personal corporations to the federal government.

The legislation additionally permits for unbiased arbitration of disputes, ending the requirement that they be settled by Venezuelan courts managed by the ruling social gathering, the AP mentioned. Moreover, it modifications extraction taxes, setting a 30% royalty cap, the AP reported.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Rodriguez on Thursday, the AP reported. The decision got here simply in the future after the secretary defined to senators how the administration deliberate to deal with the sale of tens of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela, the AP added. The newspaper famous that Venezuela has the biggest reserves of crude oil on this planet.

A PDVSA worker of the state oil firm carries a picture of former President Nicolás Maduro dressed as an oil employee throughout a rally in assist of an oil reform legislation proposed by performing President Delcy Rodriguez to loosen state management and open the trade to non-public and overseas funding in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, January 29, 2026. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Picture)

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“What we hope to do is transition to a mechanism that permits this to be bought in a traditional manner, a traditional oil trade, not one dominated by cronies, not one dominated by bribery and corruption,” Rubio mentioned throughout a Senate listening to on Wednesday.

The secretary mentioned the U.S. would preserve management over oil revenues and that Venezuela would submit a month-to-month finances outlining what it ought to get funded. The cash is then transferred to an account that the US will oversee. He defined that the cash wouldn’t be within the arms of the US, however that Washington would monitor its disbursement to make sure it advantages the Venezuelan individuals.

The Related Press contributed to this report.