An energy consultant who had worked for Shell for decades has started talks with Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA to help it reduce gas flaring at oil sites, but the U.S. sanctions on the Latin American country could derail such projects. Ex-Shell executive Mounir Bouaziz has worked on projects for reducing gas flaring at Shell’s operations in Iraq, and now, as an independent energy consultant, he looks to replicate in Venezuela some of the success in cutting gas flaring in Iraq, Bouaziz told Reuters in an interview published on Thursday. PDVSA alone cannot spare any money to invest in gas processing plants or other infrastructure that would reduce gas flaring at Venezuela’s oil fields, where natural gas is also pumped as associated gas but can’t be used because of lack of either infrastructure or equipment. So Bouaziz is looking to attract private investment to repair outdated or broken equipment […]