The US lifts sanctions on Venezuelan oil for at least six months
As announced , the United States has lifted sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry after Nicolas Maduro's government reached a deal with the opposition that could lead to elections next year.
The agreement was Washington's condition for lifting sanctions.
Following the easing of sanctions, analysts predict that Venezuela's oil production could increase by 25%.
“The United States welcomes the signing of an election roadmap agreement between the United Platform and Maduro's representatives,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a press release.
“Consistent with U.S. sanctions policy, in response to these democratic developments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued general licenses authorizing transactions involving the Venezuelan oil and gas sector and the gold sector, as well as to remove the ban on secondary trading,” he added.
The statement warns that the Treasury Department reserves the right to revoke some or all newly issued licenses if “Maduro representatives” do not keep their word regarding a new electoral map for Venezuela.
Reports of the deal emerged earlier this month, following a series of signals from Washington that it was ready to ease the sanctions regime in exchange for the Venezuelan government's commitment to hold new elections.
The United States took the most important step in this direction last year, when it granted Chevron a license to return to Venezuela, and this without asking for commitments from the Maduro regime because imports of Russian heavy crude needed to be urgently replaced with the heavy Venezuelan one.
Now, the new licensing regime would allow financial transactions involving PDVSA, which could significantly boost Venezuelan oil exports. Crude oil exports from Venezuela last month topped 800,000 barrels per day, the second-highest monthly export rate since the start of the year. Most of the exports went to China, Reuters reported in early October.
Furthermore, the new financial resources allow PDVSA, in collaboration with multinationals in the sector, including ENI, to be able to carry out the necessary maintenance work on its plants, which will improve both oil refining and the oil extraction and transport capacity. crude oil, with prospects of further increases in exports.
The increase in exports came on the back of a recovery in production, mainly in the Orinoco Belt, which hosts the majority of Venezuela's oil reserves,
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The article The US lifts sanctions on Venezuelan oil for at least six months comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-usa-revocano-le-sanzioni-sul-petrolio-venezuelano-per-almeno-sei-mesi/ on Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:00:25 +0000.