US To Recruit Top World Oil Execs to ‘Promote Foreign Policy’

By Staff, Agencies

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to recruit some of the top oil industry guns to serve as Washington's foreign policy tools to crack down on "bad actors" like Venezuela, Russia and Iran.

Addressing members of IHS Markit's CERAWeek annual energy conference in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, Pompeo divulged what has long been an open secret – that the US is willing to use all its political clout to propel its economic interests and vice versa.

Pompeo said that American shale oil and natural gas should become instruments to "strengthen" the US' "hand in foreign policy."

As an example of such an intertwined approach, the top US diplomat referred to the crisis in Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. The Latin American country has seen its economy crumbling under Washington's stifling economic sanctions for years.

Since January, when Washington recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as so-called Venezuela's interim president, the US has accelerated its onslaught on the Caracas oil industry, imposing sanctions on its state oil company PDVSA and seizing $7 billion in its US assets.

At the same time, Washington takes pains to squeeze out Iran's oil industry by pushing allies to cut their imports under threat of secondary sanctions. The ultimate goal here is to kill off Iran's crude exports completely, Pompeo reaffirmed.

"We're committed to bringing Iranian crude oil exports to zero as quickly as market conditions will permit," he claimed.