Russian oil majors will continue to develop their businesses in Venezuela despite most Western companies’ decisions to avoid the country and are eager to take their places, the Russian daily Vedomosti reports. The author said that Moscow made relations with Caracas a priority in the Bush years in response to what the Kremlin viewed as US encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wil visit Venezuela in the beginning of April. His press secretary Dmitriy Peskov told Vedomosti, “ Venezuela is an attractive and fairly valuable market, and one in which we have good prospects in many sectors of the economy”. He added, “We are not frightened by the fact that foreign companies are leaving; some leave, others stay”.
As reported earlier, many foreign companies have decided the risks in doing business with Venezuela are not justified. According to Reuters, Shell CFO Simon Henry said in London on 16 March, "They [Venezuela] are desperately inviting people back in, but no one's going there."
