{"id":13083,"date":"2026-09-15T00:18:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T04:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/?p=13083"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T04:18:54","slug":"u-s-treasury-issues-new-license-easing-venezuelan-oil-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/u-s-treasury-issues-new-license-easing-venezuelan-oil-operations-15092026\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Treasury Issues New License Easing Venezuelan Oil Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued <a href=\"https:\/\/ofac.treasury.gov\/recent-actions\/20260318\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General License<\/a> 52C this Monday, replacing the previous 52B framework and <strong>authorizing transactions that had been blocked under Executive Orders 13884 and 13850<\/strong>, provided they are carried out by established U.S. entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Signed by OFAC Director Bradley T. Smith, the measure <strong>requires that contracts with the Venezuelan state oil company (Petroleos de Venezuela \u2013 PDVSA) designate dispute resolution in courts in the United States, United Kingdom, France, or Singapore.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>RELATED:<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/telesurenglish.net\/venezuela-announces-new-appointments-in-oil-and-foreign-affairs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Venezuela Announces New Appointments in Oil and Foreign Affairs<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the license, <strong>monetary payments to blocked individuals -aside from local taxes and fees- must be deposited into accounts designated by Washington<\/strong>. The framework <strong>also permits transactions with the Venezuelan government that are deemed necessary for PDVSA\u2019s authorized activities<\/strong>, subject to the same financial safeguard mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Restrictions Still Apply<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the commercial relief, the license maintains significant limitations. It explicitly <strong>excludes any transactions involving bonds or debt issued by the Venezuelan government or PDVSA, as well as any attempt to transfer or enforce liens on the Venezuelan state\u2019s shares in the oil industry<\/strong>. Transactions remain banned with individuals or entities on the Specially Designated Nationals list, as well as with entities based in Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba, or joint ventures with ties to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the corporate side, the license <strong>does not authorize any changes to the governance or leadership structure of PDV Holding, Citgo Holding, or CITGO Petroleum Corporation<\/strong>, keeping control over those overseas assets under strict oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Companies exporting Venezuelan oil and petrochemical products to markets outside the United States must now submit detailed reports to U.S. authorities on volumes, values, destinations, and tax payments within 10 days of their first transaction, followed by reports every 90 days thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Decade of External Sanctions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new license follows more than a decade of U.S. unilateral sanctions targeting Venezuela. According to the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory, <strong>1,089 sanctions have been imposed on the country since 2014 -918 directly by governments and 171 by financial, judicial, and other institutions<\/strong>. The sanctions framework began with a December 2014 U.S. law and was cemented in March 2015, when then-President Barack Obama declared Venezuela an alleged \u201c<em>unusual and extraordinary threat\u201d<\/em> to U.S. national security, a designation later renewed by both the Trump and Biden administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The oil sector took its first direct hit in August 2017, when an U.S. Executive Order blocked the purchase and sale of PDVSA bonds and cut off the company\u2019s access to international financing<\/strong>. Additional measures followed, including a 2019 order that froze all Venezuelan assets in the United States and opened the door to secondary sanctions against third countries and companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author: Laura V. Mor<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: OFAC \/ Agencies<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: teleSUR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Treasury&rsquo;s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 52C this Monday, replacing the previous 52B framework and authorizing transactions that had been blocked under Executive Orders 13884&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"{\"authors\":[8],\"author_categories\":{\"8\":\"1\"},\"fallback_author_user\":\"1\",\"ppma_author_box_select\":\"\",\"selected_authors\":[{\"id\":8,\"display_name\":\"RRebeldeAdminWP\",\"is_guest\":0,\"category_id\":\"1\"}]}"},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[8],"class_list":["post-13083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"authors":[{"term_id":8,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"yolaunicaquehay","display_name":"RRebeldeAdminWP","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e6145d63ff95c9a0f0e53b7149804b1faf86748d6cc15f466103269a288ea377?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english","last_name":"Radio Rebelde","first_name":"WebMaster","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13085,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13083\/revisions\/13085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13083"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=13083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}