The Treasury Department issued a license that allows PDVSA to continue exporting and re-exporting liquefied petroleum gas

• This OFAC resolution does not authorize in-kind transactions between the Venezuelan state oil company and other companies that do not have U.S. authorization | Main photo: Archive

The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued license 40C on July 8, allowing Venezuela to continue exporting and re-exporting liquefied petroleum gas.

The entity, attached to the Treasury Department of that country, explained that this measure replaces general license 40B, issued on July 10, 2023. The document indicates that “any payment in kind of oil or petroleum products” will not be allowed.

“This general license does not authorize (…) any transaction prohibited by the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations, including transactions involving any blocked person other than PDVSA, any entity in which PDVSA owns, directly or indirectly, a 50% or more interest, or any person of the government of Venezuela that is blocked,” the document details.

The decree highlights that no person is exempt from compliance with the requirements of other federal agencies, including the Department of Industry and Trade Security Office, in order to process the respective permits in order to do business with PDVSA.

Photo: Courtesy

OFAC License 8N

OFAC authorized on May 10 the General license number 8Nwhich allows oil contractors to maintain their essential operations in Venezuela until November 15, 2024.

The companies included in this measure include Halliburton, Schlumberger Limited, Baker Hughes Holdings LLC and Weatherford International, which are not oil extraction companies but rather oil well and platform maintenance companies.

The resolution allows for “payments of third-party invoices for transactions and activities authorized under this license, or incurred before April 21, 2020, provided that such activity was authorized at the time it occurred.”

Companies included in this measure will also be able to pay taxes in Venezuela and acquire public services. The measure also authorizes the payment of salaries to contractors and employees of these oil companies.

One of the points of license 8N specifies that drilling, buying, selling or transporting crude oil or petroleum products from Venezuela may not be carried out.

Photo: courtesy

Dialogues between the governments of Venezuela and the United States

On July 3, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez announced that Venezuela and the United States resumed dialogue process between both governments.

Rodríguez reported through his account on X (formerly Twitter) that the meeting was held virtually with representatives of the two nations.

During the meeting, representatives of Venezuela and the United States agreed on the following points:

-The willingness to work together to “gain trust” and “improve bilateral relations.”

-Maintain communications in a “respectful and constructive” manner.

Jorge Rodríguez said that, in this first meeting with the United States, both parties expressed their willingness to work together to “improve relations” between the nations.

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