Talks continuing on lifting further sanctions on Maduro regime

International oil giant Chevron is getting ready to ship the first oil cargo from Venezuela to the United States (US) in the next few days.

The move comes after the US Administration issued, this weekend, a six-month licence allowing the US supermajor to extract and export oil from the South American country, which was previously reported by Our Today.

On the weekend, the US Treasury issued a licence authorising Chevron to resume limited natural resource extraction operations in Venezuela, while preventing Venezuela’s state oil firm, PDVSA from receiving profits from the oil sales by Chevron. The licence authorises Chevron to produce oil at fields jointly operated with PDVSA and sell the oil to US refiners.

Sanctions against Venezuela were introduced in 2019 by the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration’s decision to ease some of those sanctions came after the resumption of talks on the weekend between the government of Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition. Those talks led on Sunday to the signing of a US-brokered accord between the government and the opposition in order to resolve the country’s political turmoil.  

Six-month licence

Chevron has now been granted a six-month licence to resume pumping oil and generating oil revenues.

Under the limited authorisation, profits from the sale of oil and petroleum products would go to paying down debt to Chevron and not boosting state-run PDVSA’s profits. 

Chevron is the only active US oil company in Venezuela.

Chevron’s six-month licence is not expected to increase Venezuela’s oil production by much or quickly. In October, Bloomberg reported that Chevron CEO, Mike Wirth indicted that it could take “months and years in order to begin to maintain and refurbish fields and equipment and change any investment activity”. 

Further decisions regarding sanctions on Venezuela will depend on whether Maduro makes good on commitments he made in the “social contract” signed with the Opposition las Sunday, according to senior administration officials, speaking with the Associated Press.