US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday ordered Chevron Corp to “wind down” operations in Venezuela by Dec. 1, barring the California-based oil giant in the meantime from drilling or exporting, as the US increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to give up power.
Chevron is the last major US oil company to do business in crisis-wracked Venezuela, investing in the South American nation’s oil fields and machinery over the past century with an estimated value of US$2.6 billion, which analysts say Maduro’s government would likely take over.
It is the latest ins a series of steps the White House has taken against Maduro, quickening the pace of its push to end his presidency and more than 20 years of socialist rule that critics blame for leading the once rich oil-producing nation to economic and political ruin.
Photo: EPA-EFE
This comes at a tumultuous time for oil producing nations with global energy prices driven down in part due to a glut of oil in storage worldwide as drivers stay home under coronavirus quarantines rather than gas up their cars or board planes.
Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, yet its political upheaval and economic crunch have led 4.5 million people in recent years to flee their native country, where many lack basic services like running water, electricity, gasoline and functioning hospitals.
Chevron had been arguing that any void in Venezuela created by its departure would likely be filled by companies from Russia and China, harming long-term strategic US interests in the country, which is an OPEC member.
Chevron spokesperson Ray Fohr said the company would follow the laws and regulations, while remaining committed to the “integrity of our joint venture assets, the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families.”
Chevron’s net daily production last year averaged 35,300 barrels of crude oil, equal to about 6 percent of Venezuela’s total production.
Recently, Venezuela had been scaling down more amid the tumult in the global oil market.
Russ Dallen, head of the Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets, expects the Venezuelan government to take over Chevron’s operations itself and predicts Maduro’s administration would eventually run them into the ground.
That is what happened to a long list of US-built factories that fell into the socialist government’s hands when they decided to leave or were expropriated, he said.
“It may take years of decay for the government to destroy the Tiffany diamond that Chevron has built there,” Dallen said. “I have no doubt they’ll be able to destroy it.”
The US and nearly 60 nations support Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido’s claim to be the country’s legitimate president, calling Maduro’s 2018 election a sham because leading opposition candidates were banned.
Shortly after Guaido declared his plans to oust Maduro in early January last year, the White House hit Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA with sanctions, aimed at cutting the socialist government off from hard cash it earned from oil production.
However, the US allowed Chevron, which operates joint ventures with PDVSA, to continue working in Venezuela.
US Department of the Treasury officials had to renew Chevron’s license to operate in Venezuela every few months.
Now, Chevron is allowed to maintain its presence there until Dec. 1 and perform essential maintenance.
Oilfield service providers Halliburton Co, Schlumberger Ltd, Baker Hughes Inc and Weatherford International Ltd also have to cease their work in Venezuela under the action affecting Chevron, Treasury officials said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”