<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: center; margin: 0in -7.1pt 10.0pt -9.4pt;" align="center"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Venezuelan oil is an option (American - OrandB) as an alternative to Russian energy sources</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: center; margin: 0in -7.1pt 10.0pt -9.4pt;" align="center"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Concrete facts</span></strong></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 9.0pt 0in;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #3598db;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="line-height: 115%;">Abdul karim Jaber Shanjar Al Issa</span></strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; padding: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 9.0pt 0in;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Professor of International Relations and Financial Monetiology, University of Al-Qadisiyah / College of Administration and Economics</span></strong></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The United States of America is seriously seeking to find an alternative to Russian energy sources (crude oil and natural gas) that your and Ba need to meet the consumption of the productive and family sectors after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 of this year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>The Russian invasion leads to the thaw between the United States of America and the West in general <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>with Venezuela by virtue of the huge reserves of crude oil <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>of Venezuela, and the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>first step in this direction came the meeting that brought together senior White House officials on March 15 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>of the same year <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>mentioned in the government of Venezuelan President (Nicol&aacute;s Madura) after a rupture that lasted a year and was concentrated<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The objectives of the meeting are in three points</strong>:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">First:</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> Identify the nature of military cooperation (Russian-Venezuelan) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 33.1pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.4pt;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Second</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">: Discussing the possibility <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>of oil becoming <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>an alternative to Russian oil imported by Or,Ba and the United States of America in the event of acomprehensive embargo on Russian oil.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 33.1pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -35.4pt;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Third</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">, a point that has nothing to do with Venezuela's resumption of oil exports to the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>United States, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>dealt with the release of American prisoners in Venezuela.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">With the escalation of the momentum of the war in Ukraine, the trend of banning energy imports from the Russian Federation has taken a serious issue at the end of this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Can the 27-member bloc <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>do that? And what is the appropriate alternative?Hence, the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>return of US-Venezuelan relations is seen as one <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>of the consequences of the war on <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Ukraine, and the consequent change in fossil energy trade trends, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>and the beginning of those changes in the removal of economic and financial sanctions imposed on Venezuela imposed on it in August 2017 by the United States of America when the Venezuelan president blocked the rewriting of the constitution and the dismantling of the legislative authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>At that time, former US President Donald Trump issued rapid economic and financial measures against the Venezuelan regime and the energy sector in particular, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>andaccording to the report of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, this resulted <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>in a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>five-fold decrease in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>crude oil production and a decline in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Venezuela's exports by (50%) after US sanctions, and this was followed by a decline in Its imports increased by (-10%) at a monthly rate in 2017 and then <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>to -50%) in 2020 and the most impact on the Venezuelan citizen as the monthly wage rate fell to 3 US dollars.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>We shed more light on this topic in two points:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">No: Facts about the Venezuelan oil option </span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.25pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 26.05pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">1- Oil was discovered in Venezuela in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>1922 and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Venezuela became the largest exporter of crude oil in 1928, and after the nationalization of oil in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>1976, there was a transformation in the Venezuelan economy, like the other major oil countries in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>the world, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>as it neglected economic diversification and the extractive sector <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>became <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>up to (60%) of its gross domestic product, and oil revenues represent a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>percentage of up to about (96%) of the total financial revenues and imports food and medicine.Venezuela was one of the founders of OPEC at its founding meeting in Baghdad in September 1960.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.25pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 26.05pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">2- Venezuela has huge reserves of crude oil with a volume of 304 billion barrels, representing (18%) of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>world's global reserves of crude oil of 1733 billion barrels, and thus it ranks first in the world, then Saudi Arabia second (17%), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Canada third <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>(11%), fourth Iran <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>(9%), and fifth Iraq <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>(8%)).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.25pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 26.05pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">3- The nature of Venezuelan oil is dominated by being heavy <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>and thick oil (acid), and this <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>feature reduces the importance of this type of oil in the world because it requires special operations when extracting, refining and transporting, and when <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>comparing the price per barrel of Venezuelan oil, it amounted to about $ 62.72 for the month of October 2021, while the price of Iraqi and Saudi oil <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Light <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>About 81.48 and 82.77 per barrel respectively. <sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></sup></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 26.05pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.25pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">4- Before the US sanctions, Venezuela produced about 2.24 million barrels per day in 2016, of which it exports 1.9 million <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>barrels per day and consumes the rest, and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>revenues amounted to 22 billion dollars, and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>after the sanctions, production decreased to 540 barrels per day and by (-40%) in 2020.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 26.05pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.25pt;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Second: Diplomacy or Pragmatism in the US-Venezuelan Rapprochement:</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.05pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 18.95pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">1- <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>The dominance of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>crude oil trade between the United States <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>of America and Venezuela, and the volume of US imports of heavy <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>crude oil before the imposition of sanctions in 2016 is about 741 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>thousand b/d and 55 thousand b/d of heavy petroleum products, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>while Venezuela imports about 75,000<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>b/d of petrochemical products from America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.05pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 18.95pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">2- The United States of America still relies on fossil fuels in primary energy generation by up <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>to (80%) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>compared to (18%) of clean energy <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>alternatives and (2%) of nuclear energy, and the situation is more difficult with regard to the European side <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>(European Union) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.05pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 18.95pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">3- In terms of geopolitics and energy security, the European Union countries import <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>(30%) of crude oil and (15%) of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>oil products with a value of $ 80 billion for 2021, while the need for Russian gas<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>for 2021 The figures indicate European imports for 2021 of natural gas by pipeline<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>) about 211.3 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>billion / m3, of which 167.7 billion / m3 from Russia and a rate of about (<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>79%) The European imports<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>of natural gas through tankers (LNG) represent imports in this way about 17.2 billion / m3 and B (15%), which means that the European Union depends on (57%) of its natural gas needs on the Russian Federation and that means much more than half. Thus, it is an issue that cannot be overcome through the imposition of sanctions and Russian energy control, as differences have emerged between the members of the European Union and B over the adoption of sanctions or not, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>for example (the position of Hungary and Slovakia), over the rapid cessation of Russian gas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.05pt; margin: 0in 0in .0001pt 18.95pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">4- As for the close alternatives <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>to the Russian exporter, which acquires (27%) of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>world's reserves of natural gas amounting to about 140.3 trillion / m3, other options are offered to increase the share of European imports from them, whether from within the European Union such as Norway and the Netherlands or from outside the Union such as Qatar, Australia, Algeria, Canada, Nigeria and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Kazakhstan, and certainly the costs of The liquefaction of natural gas to become denser than natural gas and less than the density of steel at atmospheric pressure until it is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>transported by tankers <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>and unloaded its loads in special ports that are not available in some European countries such as Germany, is more expensive andwillreflect on the life of the European citizenandB who is already beginning to feel the high prices of energy sources.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="margin-left: 18.95pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.05pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">5- The alternatives offered cannot provide additional increases in the short and medium term, partly because the main producers of natural gas have long-term contracts with countries consuming natural gas, and this applies to the State of Qatar, which ranks third in the volume of natural gas reserves with a volume of 24.7 trillion / m3 and by (21%) globally, while there are political problems with Iran We want to put it here, which has the second reserves of natural gas in the world with a volume of 32.1 trillion / m3 and a percentage of (23%) globally<sub>.</sub></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Summary</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">We conclude from all that has been proposed, it is difficult to change the trends of global trade in existing energy sources, even if <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>advanced technology is used, the rules of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>geographical distribution of these sources cannot be changed, perhaps finding clean alternatives to this type of energy is the only way to break the equation<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>as well as even if diplomacy succeeds in restoring Relations between the United States and the West on the one hand and Venezuela on the other hand in oil relations in light of the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war (especially since the sanctions on Venezuela are not UN sanctions and the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>UN Security Council did not approve a resolution on them at the time, but rather on the part of the United States of America and close allies) may be a temporary part if we know that Venezuela exports (15%) of its oil to OrandBa before the US sanctions in 2017 While <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>the Asian partner <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>accounted for 72 percent of Venezuela's crude oil exports in the last year, the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>mother <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>needs more U.S. diplomacy to deal again to restore the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>bilateral trade partnership in goods between the two countries, which before the sanctions was for Venezuela the first place with its other trading partners. </span></p>
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