After reaching humanitarian agreement, U.S. allows Chevron to pump more Venezuelan oil

The United States Treasury announced on Saturday that it has reached an agreement between the party of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and the opposition party, and has granted authorization to Chevron to expand its oil pumping activities within Venezuela.

Part of an effort to lift certain sanctions as long as the Venezuelan government pledges to take steps to improve the economic and humanitarian situation within its borders.

In Saturday remarks about the development, the White House called the agreement “important steps in the right direction,” but noted Venezuela still has work to do. The US has authorized Chevron to pump more Venezuelan oil on the condition that Venezuela adheres to “a humanitarian agreement focused on education, health, food security, flood response, and electricity programs that will benefit the Venezuelan people.”

The Treasury Department expressed hope for the new agreement to continue and renew talks in Mexico City. “This action reflects longstanding U.S. policy to provide targeted sanctions relief based on concrete steps that alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy,” said the US Treasury. 

The action is not expected to have an impact on global oil prices, as drivers worldwide continue to struggle at the gas pump amid high inflation and soaring price-per-gallon numbers.

The pumping license has only a 6-month duration and can be revoked by the US Treasury at any time if the humanitarian agreement is not being met. The Treasury also pointed out in its announcement that the new agreement does not expand to any other oil pumping ventures within Venezuela.

“This authorization prevents PdVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela) from receiving profits from the oil sales by Chevron. GL 41 authorizes activity related to Chevron’s joint ventures in Venezuela only, and does not authorize other activity with PdVSA,” the announcement reads. 

The announcement points out that the US will enforce the terms of the agreement “vigorously” and all other US-imposed sanctions on Venezuela will remain in place for now.