Under the expanded license issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Venezuela’s state oil company, PdVSA, is barred from collecting profits from oil sales generated by its joint venture with Chevron. It keeps in place broader sanctions against PdVSA.
The steps taken by Venezuela’s Maduro regime to relaunch talks with the opposition “are important steps in the right direction to restore democracy in the country,” the Treasury said, which the United States welcomes “as part of of our longstanding policy of supporting the peaceful restoration of democracy, free and fair elections, and respect for the rights and freedoms of Venezuelans.”
Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, but mismanagement of the oil sector by the government and sanctions imposed by the United States have sharply reduced its exports.
Sen. Bob Mendez (DN.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the decision but warned Caracas to keep its new promises.
“If Maduro tries again to use these negotiations to buy time to further entrench his criminal dictatorship, the United States and our international partners must remove the full force of our sanctions that brought his regime to the negotiating table in first place,” Menendez said. said in a statement.
Chevron, which maintained a presence in Venezuela during US sanctions, said it received the permit.
“We are committed to remaining a constructive presence in the country and to continuing to support social investment programs aimed at providing humanitarian relief,” Ray Fohr, a Chevron spokesman, said in a statement.
