Overview
- On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published amended general licenses that expand permitted activity across oil, petrochemical and mining sectors while keeping core sanctions in place.
- Specific authorizations name major firms such as Chevron, BP, Eni, Repsol and Shell to market, negotiate and, in some cases, start on‑the‑ground operations subject to OFAC approval.
- The licenses force all revenue from authorized activity into U.S.‑controlled accounts and ban cryptocurrency payments and physical gold transfers outside approved banking channels.
- Contracting rules now let parties choose dispute venues in the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Singapore, which eases earlier U.S.‑only legal requirements and may speed dealmaking.
- The framework creates regulated rules for mining and aims to curb illegal gold trade, but companies still face operational uncertainty because each project needs OFAC signoff and major investment to revive Venezuela’s ageing infrastructure.