US suspends sanctions against Venezuela’s oil and gas sector

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued four general licenses on October 19 (October 18 ET), suspending some sanctions on Venezuela, including those related to its oil and gas and gold mining sectors. As follows from the Ministry of Finance, this was done in response to the signing on October 17 of an agreement on the roadmap for the 2024 elections between the opposition “Unitary Platform of Venezuela” and representatives of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington has not recognized as the legitimate president of the country since 2019.

The US has authorized operations involving Venezuela’s oil and gas sector for six months, a license that will be renewed “only if Venezuela fulfills its obligations under the election roadmap, as well as its obligations with respect to those unlawfully detained.”