Venezuela unveils new oil, mining deals under US blessing

In the shadow of a September 2 agreement granting the US control over approximately one-fifth of Venezuela's vast oil reserves, Washington and Caracas unveiled fresh oil and gold extraction partnerships on Wednesday during the US-hosted G20 summit in Houston. US oil giant Continental Resources, led by Howard Hamm, signed a memorandum of understanding with Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA to develop the Ayacucho 2 Block, a 126,000-acre tract containing an estimated 30 billion barrels of oil - around 10% of Venezuela's proven reserves.

Hamm, a key Trump administration ally and a prominent figure in the US shale boom, was accompanied by Venezuelan officials and top Trump administration appointees at the ceremony. Energy Secretary Chris Wright hailed the project as a "milestone deal in the US-Venezuelan relationship" and "a milestone deal in making the Western Hemisphere the center of the global energy system."

Adding to the oil deal, Henney Capital announced plans to develop gold reserves in Venezuela. Despite praising the new agreements, critics argue that interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez has ceded the country's resource sovereignty to the US with the September 2 deal.