{"id":336597,"date":"2026-02-13T14:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/noticias\/new-ofac-licenses-enable-oil-investment-in-venezuela\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T14:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:45:23","slug":"new-ofac-licenses-enable-oil-investment-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"noticias","link":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/news\/new-ofac-licenses-enable-oil-investment-in-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"New OFAC licenses enable oil investment in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued two general licenses, No. 49 and No. 50<\/strong>, which relax certain restrictions for operating in the Venezuelan oil and gas sector. These licenses allow, under strict conditions, the negotiation and signing of contingent contracts<\/strong> for future investments, as well as the execution of specific operating activities<\/strong> by foreign companies. <\/p>\n\n

What do the new general licenses allow?<\/h2>\n\n

The License 49<\/a><\/strong> authorizes companies to enter into contractual arrangements related to oil and gas exploration, development or production in Venezuela, but their execution is subject to future OFAC approval.<\/strong> This includes memoranda of understanding<\/a><\/strong>binding offers, preliminary agreements and enforceable pro forma invoices. <\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, the License 50<\/a><\/strong> allows certain entities to conduct operations in Venezuela with contracts that must be governed by U.S. law and provide for any disputes to be resolved in U.S. courts.<\/p>\n\n

Beneficiary companies and conditions<\/h2>\n\n

The new provisions open the way for Chevron, Repsol, Shell<\/a>, ENI<\/strong> and other companies with previous operations or expansion projects to access the Venezuelan market with more defined and secure contractual frameworks<\/strong>. However, any players from Russia, Iran, North Korea, China or Cuba<\/strong>, as well as entities jointly owned with these governments, are excluded. <\/p>\n\n

In addition, payments in digital currencies, gold or debt swap mechanisms are prohibited<\/strong>, limiting transactions to conventional payments that must be channeled through special accounts, as established in Executive Order 14373<\/strong>. This ensures that the proceeds derived from these transactions are monitored by the U.S. Treasury Department. U.S. Treasury Department.<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Risks and opportunities for investors<\/h2>\n\n

The new scenario represents an opportunity for foreign capital that has sought ways to enter or expand in the Caribbean country, whose oil industry requires urgent investments<\/strong> to recover its production capacity. to recover its production capacity.<\/a><\/strong>. The licenses enable a more transparent contractual model, with the possibility of designing CPP (contract-based project participation) projects<\/strong> under international supervision. <\/p>\n\n

However, the mandatory nature of periodic reporting to the Department of State and the Department of Energy<\/strong>, coupled with the still volatile political context in Venezuela, means that regulatory and reputational risks remain present.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

A new era for Venezuelan oil?<\/h2>\n\n

The issuance of these OFAC licenses marks a significant change in the U.S. strategy towards Venezuela, which is no longer about blocking completely, but about conditioning, monitoring and channeling<\/strong>. With this new framework, a window of opportunity<\/strong> opens for the entry of investments<\/strong> under clear rules, but not without obstacles. <\/p>\n\n

Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photo: Shutterstock<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington authorizes contingent contracts and energy operations under strict conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10019,"featured_media":336590,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categoria_noticias":[13026,13036],"etiqueta_noticias":[],"class_list":["post-336597","noticias","type-noticias","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria_noticias-energy","categoria_noticias-oil-and-gas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/336597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticias"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/336597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria_noticias?post=336597"},{"taxonomy":"etiqueta_noticias","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspenet.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/etiqueta_noticias?post=336597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}