Russia said the United States is pushing Russian companies out of Venezuela’s energy sector.
“Right now, following Venezuela and what is happening there, our companies are quite openly being pushed out of Venezuela,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with RT, a state-linked media network.
The US launched a military operation in early January that resulted in the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In the interview published on Thursday, Lavrov linked the US’s pressure on Russian companies to broader efforts to curb Moscow’s role in global oil markets.
Lavrov cited recent sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as tariffs and restrictions on countries purchasing Russian oil, including India.
“Everywhere it is being said that Russian oil and Russian gas will be replaced by American oil and American liquefied natural gas,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s investments in Venezuela at risk
Russia now faces the prospect of significant financial losses in Venezuela following the US operation, which has upended decades of strategic cooperation between Moscow and Caracas spanning energy, defense, and diplomacy.
Energy ties played a central role, reflecting the importance of the oil sector to Russia’s economy.
A former US ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union warned last month that Russia’s exposure in Venezuela could translate into concrete losses.
“Russian investments in Venezuela’s oil industry over the last twenty years will now have to be, formally or informally, written off,” wrote Stephen Sestanovich, the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Loans for Venezuela’s purchase of Russian weapons could meet the same fate, while trade between the two countries could also come to a halt, Sestanovich added.
That would come at a sensitive moment for Russia’s economy.
As the war in Ukraine approaches its fifth year, sweeping Western sanctions and lower oil prices are weighing on budget revenues that fund President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. In January, Russia’s oil revenue plunged to its lowest level in over five years.
At least one Russian state-owned oil company has moved to ringfence its exposure. Last month, Roszarubezhneft said that all of its Venezuelan assets are owned by the Russian state.
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