The United States will not renew a license that expires on Thursday and that had greatly eased oil sanctions on Venezuela, accusing Nicolas Maduro of failing to meet his electoral commitments by disqualifying opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado.
Just hours before the deadline, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on its website that it had issued a replacement license giving companies 45 days to “wind down” their business and transactions in the OPEC country’s oil and gas sector.
The Treasury Department decided not to renew the relief that expires at midnight tonight and set a deadline of May 31 for foreign companies to stop all oil and gas production and export operations they have had during the past six months. It is also moving forward with reimposing punitive measures in response to Nicolás Maduro’s failure to meet certain electoral commitments, senior U.S. officials said.
Washington had repeatedly threatened in recent months to reinstate energy sanctions unless Maduro fulfilled his promises that led to a partial easing of US sanctions starting in October, following an electoral agreement reached between the regime and the Venezuelan opposition.
The sweeping sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry were first imposed by Donald Trump’s administration in 2019 following Maduro’s election victory, which the United States and other Western governments rejected.
While Maduro has fulfilled some commitments under last year’s deal, he has failed to fulfill others, including allowing the opposition to field the candidate of its choice in the July 28 presidential election. As a result, the Biden administration plans to allow the current six-month blanket license to expire without renewal shortly following midnight.
«Areas where they have fallen short include the disqualification of candidates and parties on technicalities and what we see as a continuing pattern of harassment and repression once morest opposition figures and civil society.an official told Reuters news agency.
The end of General License 44 means that all activities that were being carried out under this permit must close in the next 45 days and that no new operations are allowed.
Instead, the U.S. Treasury will issue License 44A, which requires companies to apply for specific permits to do business in Venezuela’s oil and gas sector, which will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Washington may deny such permits if it deems that they violate the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.
From now on, companies wishing to do business with the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) will have to request individual authorizations from the U.S. Treasury that will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
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2024-07-20 08:54:54