Caracas seeks to mend EU ties, pans gold ruling

Venezuela's government reversed its 29 June decision to expel the EU ambassador in a bid to sustain prospects for dialogue, Venezuela's foreign minister Jorge Arreaza said today.

President Nicolas Maduro had given ambassador Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa 72 hours to leave Venezuela after Brussels expanded a sanctions list of Venezuelan senior officials.

Despite new sanctions, the EU has maintained a more dovish stance toward Caracas than the US, which regularly ratchets up oil, financial and targeted sanctions aimed at removing Maduro in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido.

EU oil companies Eni and Repsol, which are partnered in Venezuela's Perla offshore gas field, continue to import Venezuelan crude as payment for their production, with some refined products sent back. Repsol is also a partner with Venezuela's state-owned PdV in the Orinoco heavy oil belt.

A 1mn bl cargo of Venezuelan crude arrived this week at the 235,000 b/d refinery run by Eni and Kuwait's state-owned KPC at Milazzo, Sicily.

In a separate development today, the UK's high court ratified London's recognition of Guaido as interim president, but found it "unnecessary" to decide on claims related to whether his appointees could give instructions to the country's central bank (BCV) with respect to the use of its gold reserves held in the Bank of England (BoE).

The opposition-controlled National Assembly hailed the ruling for its "protection" of Venezuelan assets from the Maduro government, even though the Guaido team lost its case to access the gold for purchasing humanitarian aid.

Sarosh Zaiwalla, attorney for Maduro, said the BCV will appeal the judgment, which sets back the government's similar plan to use the resource for food and medical equipment to fight the pandemic.

Maduro's vice president Delcy Rodriguez called the UK court decision "absurd".

By Patricia Garip and Dafydd ab Iago