The US has suspended some sanctions on Venezuelan oil, gas and gold production, as well as those imposed on certain trading of the country’s bonds, in response to the signing of an electoral roadmap agreement between the government of President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition.
The Treasury Department said on Wednesday that it issued a six-month license authorizing transactions involving the oil and gas sector in Venezuela, along with a second one authorizing dealings with Minerven – the Venezuelan state-owned gold mining company.
It also removed a secondary trading ban on certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds as well as debt and equity issued by state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The ban on trading in the primary bond market remains in place.
The measures are a nod to the political agreement signed by the Maduro government with a faction of the opposition in Barbados on Tuesday. They’re “consistent with U.S. sanctions policy, in response to these democratic developments,” the Treasury said in a statement.
As part of the agreement, the US expects Venezuela to restore by November the political rights of all candidates who have been banned from participating in next year’s presidential elections, according to US administration officials. That includes Maria Corina Machado, considered the frontrunner ahead of Sunday’s primaries, they added.
The US “is prepared to amend or revoke authorizations at any time, should representatives of Maduro fail to follow through on their commitments,” the Treasury added in the statement. “All other restrictions imposed by the US on Venezuela remain in place.”
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Venezuela’s oil exports to the US were halted in early 2019 when the Treasury imposed sanctions on PDVSA, as the oil company is known. Back then, Venezuela exported nearly 365,000 barrels a day from its ports to the US, twice as much as in September. The ban on trading of Venezuelan debt came into effect in the same year, under former President Donald Trump’s administration.
--With assistance from Nicolle Yapur.
(Updates with details of Treasury statement, background starting in fourth paragraph)
Author: Eric Martin, Andreina Itriago Acosta and Fabiola Zerpa
