US pushes for Venezuela investment, energy secretary warns about legitimacy of Chinese deals

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright pushed on Wednesday for expanded U.S. investments in Venezuela as part of the highest-level U.S. visit focused on energy policy in nearly three decades, while warning about the legitimacy of Chinese businesses in the OPEC country, Reuters reported.

Wright said the U.S. is prepared to help boost oil, gas and power output in the country, following talks with interim President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.

"This year, we can drive a dramatic increase in Venezuelan oil production, in Venezuelan natural gas production and Venezuelan electricity production," Wright said during a televised briefing after the meeting. Venezuela is currently producing about 1 million barrels per day of crude.

The boost would lead to more job opportunities, higher wages and quality of life for Venezuelans, while providing benefits for the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, Wright said, adding that the U.S. wants to "set the Venezuelan people and the economy free."

Wright told reporters at a roundtable after meeting Rodriguez that legitimate deals by legitimate Chinese companies are fine in Venezuela, but U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is trying to avoid "damaging" deals that Chinese enterprises have done in other countries in the region.

"China does a lot of deals in countries where they are not mutually beneficial," he said. "They have been quite damaging to nations in South America, Africa and around the world. So I think with U.S. help and with U.S. partnership we want to stop those kind of deals."

China has already bought some of the crude offered by the U.S., he said.

Wright also said there is no deadline for lifting all sanctions on Venezuela, and added that there needs to be debt restructuring deals to compensate companies after expropriations years ago in Venezuela, but those will not happen "overnight."

Venezuela owes billions of dollars to industrial conglomerates, oil and mining companies after deep waves of nationalizations two decades ago.