Maduro’s capture paves the way for Shell

Just weeks after the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, UK-based Shell has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Venezuelan government to begin liquified natural gas (LNG) production in the Dragon gas field.

The agreement, announced during US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s visit to Caracas, places the British company in front of the race to exploit Venezuela’s resources.

Burgum told Fox News that companies like Shell are already “signing deals and moving this opportunity forward,” noting that they joined American firms including Baker Hughes, Halliburton, and KBR in responding to President Trump’s call to energy leaders in early January.

Fox reported that

Burgum was meeting with oil and gas executives, including Chevron and Shell, along with Venezuelan business leaders during his trip to highlight critical mineral partnerships.

Historical meddling

This is absolutely no surprise to anyone who has followed Shell’s history including its role in the genocide in Gaza.

According to Declassified UK, BP and Shell had been authorized to operate in Venezuela under new licences from the US Treasury in mid-February. Declassified said that “this comes after decades of UK interference in Venezuela’s oil and gas industry.”

For instance, in 2001, Shell and BP lobbied Tony Blair to pressure Hugo Chávez into softening his Hydrocarbons Law, with the US noting BP stood to lose from the reforms, according to Declassified’s expose.  It also detailed Shell’s covert funding of CIA-linked propaganda in the 1960s in Venezuela.

Imperial hubris

In the immediate aftermath of Maduro’s kidnapping Telegraph gave space to an editorial talking about this exact plunder that we are seeing now.

The editorial read:

BP and Shell cannot afford to miss out on Venezuelan gold rush
The potential gains for Western oil companies will ultimately trump any ethical considerations

Marlow further reflects seemingly fondly on BP’s history in Iran saying:

Still, the global oil industry has been built on the exploits of buccaneers daring to venture into far-flung, dangerous corners of the world and do business under the most hazardous of circumstances.
BP’s roots can be traced back to the discovery of oil in the Persian desert at the turn of the 20th century by the British entrepreneur called William Knox D’Arcy.
When D’Arcy’s drills eventually struck oil, British imperial soldiers were summoned to surround the area and protect it from any local opportunists.

To describe the local population—the rightful inheritors and caretakers of their land’s resources – as ‘local opportunists’ shows that imperial hubris knows no bounds.

Meanwhile, BBC interviewed BP’s former chief executive, Lord Browne, who speculated that BP and Shell were already lobbying the government to secure a role in redeveloping Venezuela’s oil and gas assets.

The Israel link

According to Joseph Bouchard writing for Responsible Statecraft (RS), the overthrow of Maduro was strategically useful for US and British oil giants like BP and Shell and Israel.

The Chavismo ideology supports Palestinian liberation, aligning itself with other self-avowedly pro-Palestine US adversary states like Cuba.

In Israel’s calculus, the overthrow of Maduro was a blow to Iran, a safeguard for U.S. oil interests, and one more step in building out a pro-American, pro-Israel bloc in Latin America.

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For Israeli hardliners, removing one of the last major anti-Zionist governments in the Americas weakened Iran’s regional influence, according to RS

With Israel cheering from the sidelines and US officials boasting of “Trump speed,” the plunder of Venezuela’s – ofcourse, UK couldn’t be out of the looting.

Featured image via the Canary