Mi sembra interessante, società americana inizia nuova JV con PDVSA in barba o in ottemperanza delle sanzioni. In america si direbbe business is business. Strano che Donald e Rubio non dicano nulla... per non parlare dell'opposizione (legati?)
News | Argus Media
Venezuelan state-owned PdV has signed long-term oilfield services and crude offtake contracts with two Delaware-registered limited liability companies, a significant break from its typical business model that uses more than 40 existing upstream joint ventures.
PdV and EREPLA Services signed a 25-year oil services contract on 9 November to operate the Rosa Mediano and Tia Juana legacy oil fields in the Lake Maracaibo region. The contract includes a 15-year automatic extension clause.
Subsequently, PdV and EREPLA Trading signed a 25-year crude offtake contract on 21 December that also contains a 15-year automatic extension clause and gives EREPLA exclusive rights to market 100pc of the crude produced from the Rosa Mediano and Tia Juana fields.
PdV traditionally has insisted on controlling the marketing of all crude produced by its upstream joint ventures.
Energy minister and PdV chief executive Manuel Quevedo signed the services contract on PdV's behalf, and commerce and supply vice president Jose Roras Reyes signed the crude offtake contract.
Ali Hasan Rahman, an attorney and longtime legal counsel to
US oil trader Harry Sargeant's Global Oil Management Group, signed the contracts on behalf of EREPLA Services and EREPLA Trading. Rahman had not responded to a request for comment at press time.
According to documents seen by Argus, the terms and conditions of both contracts appear to be unusually favorable to EREPLA Services and EREPLA Trading. EREPLA Services has a 49.9pc stake in what amounts to a new upstream joint venture and is not bound contractually to take the lead in raising investment capital. PdV's other joint ventures cap the minority partner's equity at 40pc.
The production costs associated with ramping up crude output at the Rosa Mediano and Tia Juana fields will be split almost equally with PdV covering 50.1pc and EREPLA Services 49.9pc, according to the services contract. The crude will be priced at the wellhead for purposes of calculating production costs.
The EREPLA Trading crude offtake contract stipulates that the company will market 100pc of the crude produced from the Rosa Mediano and Tia Juana fields in cargoes of 240,000 bl up to 1mn bl. EREPLA Trading can freely ship the crude to clients in the US, Europe and Asia while crude exports to China can occur "by mutual agreement" with PdV.
The costs of operating the Rosa Mediano and Tia Juana fields will be paid from EREPLA Trading's crude export revenues. These oil export revenues will be deposited at designated accounts at non-Venezuelan banks outside Venezuela.
The oil field services contract exempts EREPLA Services from Venezuelan labor and local content laws, allowing it to procure imported skilled workers and equipment independently of PdV's corruption-prone procurement division.
The services contract also exempts EREPLA from paying its share of Venezuela's 30pc oil royalty. Instead, PdV will cover 100pc of the royalties transferred to the treasury.
Energy minister Quevedo on 15 November also signed an addendum to the oil field services contract with EREPLA Services stating explicitly that "any breach" by PdV of the terms of the oilfield services and crude offtake contracts with respect to deliverables, obligations, corruption and bribes will subject PdV to further U.S. sanctions and OFAC's licenses/licensees' conditions.