The US Treasury Department building in Washington, DC. Its Office of Foreign Assets Control amended eight licenses governing limited transactions with Venezuela. Photo: Rchuon24/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—This Thursday, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a package of amendments to eight general licenses governing limited transactions with Venezuela under Washington’s unilateral sanctions regime.
The amendments cover licenses related to Venezuelan oil, gas, petrochemicals, minerals, gold, electricity, and telecommunications. However, a comparison with the previous versions shows that OFAC did not expand the activities authorized under the licenses or announce a general easing of the sanctions. Instead, it removed a contractual requirement that subjected agreements with Venezuelan state entities to US law.
The modifications were made to General Licenses 46D, 47B, 48C, 50C, 51C, 52B, 54B, and 61A. The principal change allows authorized contracts with the Venezuelan government, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Minerven, CANTV, CONATEL, and other covered entities to be governed by Venezuelan law or another law agreed upon by the parties. Nevertheless, OFAC retained the requirement that disputes arising from those contracts be resolved in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, or Singapore.
Recognition of Venezuelan legislation
Until Thursday, the previous versions of the eight licenses stipulated that the terms of contracts with Venezuelan state entities be “construed and interpreted” under the laws of a US state or another US jurisdiction.
The new versions eliminate that requirement. In two new frequently asked questions, OFAC clarified that the licenses no longer require a choice-of-law provision favoring US legislation, although they continue to impose foreign venues for dispute-resolution proceedings.
OFAC stated that it made the amendments in response to “investment-related reforms” introduced by the Venezuelan government since January 2026. The agency added that Washington supports efforts by US corporations to reinvest in Venezuela as part of its national-security priorities in the Western Hemisphere, a euphemism for its imperial appetite for natural resources.
The explanation points to a practical obstacle created by Washington’s earlier licensing model. Corporations were authorized to operate in strategic Venezuelan sectors but were required to structure their principal contracts under US law, even when the underlying activities involved Venezuelan concessions, labor regulations, environmental rules, administrative permits, and sovereign regulatory authority.
The amendments remove that contradiction by allowing the contracts to reflect Venezuelan legislation. Thus, the change accommodates Venezuela’s legal and investment framework rather than the lifting of the sanctions.
It also complicates claims that the United States has exercised complete control over Venezuelan institutions since its January 3 bombing of the country and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro. The revised language instead shows Washington modifying its own regulations to make US corporate participation compatible with the Venezuelan legal framework.
Sanctions remain in place
The latest package does not constitute a general or permanent lifting of Washington’s illegal sanctions. OFAC continues to regulate which companies may participate, where payments may be deposited, which countries may be involved, and what information must be reported to US authorities.
The licenses preserve restrictions targeting transactions connected to Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and, in several cases, China. They also maintain prohibitions on debt swaps, payments in gold, Venezuelan government-issued digital currencies, blocked vessels, and the unblocking of sanctioned property.
The revised licenses provide corporations with limited room to operate in Venezuela’s strategic industries while preserving Washington’s coercive sanctions architecture and its ability to supervise commercial activity.
For Venezuela, the authorizations nevertheless provide operational relief in sectors where years of unilateral coercive measures have restricted access to equipment, software, spare parts, insurance, financing, transportation, and technical services.
The authorization to import diluents is particularly important for Venezuela’s oil industry because the country’s heavy and extra-heavy crude requires blending before it can be transported and commercialized. The telecommunications license similarly facilitates access to equipment and software required to maintain and modernize national networks.
These operational needs illustrate the sanctions’ direct effects on Venezuela’s productive infrastructure, contrary to the far-right and mainstream corporate media narrative that the measures exclusively affect government officials.
Changes in detail
According to the announcement published by the US Treasury Department, OFAC replaced eight existing licenses with versions carrying new sequential letters.
A comparison shows that their operational authorizations and principal restrictions remain substantially unchanged. The common revision is the deletion of the mandatory US choice-of-law clause and the accompanying explanatory note.
• General License 46D replaces License 46C and continues to authorize established US entities to lift, export, re-export, sell, store, market, purchase, deliver, transport, and refine Venezuelan-origin oil and petrochemical products. It also covers fertilizers and fertilizer precursor chemicals in an annex.
The license permits commercially reasonable swaps involving crude oil, diluents, or refined petroleum products. However, payments to blocked entities generally remain subject to US-controlled deposit arrangements, while transactions involving blocked vessels and several countries targeted by Washington remain prohibited.
• General License 47B replaces License 47A and continues to authorize the export, sale, storage, transportation, and delivery of US-origin diluents to Venezuela. Shipping, insurance, payment processing, and port services also remain covered. The only substantive amendment identified is the removal of the requirement that contracts be interpreted under US law.
• General License 48C replaces License 48B and authorizes US persons and companies to supply goods, technology, software, and services for Venezuelan oil, gas, petrochemical, and electricity operations. This includes maintenance, repairs, and refurbishment of equipment.
The license continues to prohibit the creation of new joint ventures, the supply of diluents under this particular authorization, and transactions involving designated countries or blocked vessels. OFAC’s newly published FAQs appear to mistakenly refer to License 48B, even though the August 27 package replaced it with License 48C.
• General License 50C replaces License 50B and maintains authorization for the Venezuelan oil and gas operations of six named corporations and their subsidiaries: BP, Chevron, Eni, Maurel & Prom, Repsol, and Shell. The list of companies did not change.
The license still requires that most payments owed to blocked Venezuelan entities—including oil and gas taxes or royalties—be deposited into the Foreign Government Deposit Funds or another account designated by the US Treasury.
• General License 51C replaces License 51B and permits established US companies to purchase, transport, process, or refine Venezuelan-origin minerals, including gold. It does not authorize exploration, mining, extraction, or mineral production inside Venezuela.
Transactions involving the processing or refining of Venezuelan minerals in Russia, Iran, the DPRK, Cuba, or China remain prohibited. License users must provide supply-chain documentation and report their transactions every 30 days.
• General License 52B replaces License 52A and continues to authorize established US entities to conduct a broad range of otherwise prohibited transactions involving PDVSA and companies in which the Venezuelan government holds an interest of 50% or more.
Nevertheless, the license does not authorize transactions involving most other sanctioned persons, prohibited government debt, the transfer or pledging of Venezuelan state equity, the enforcement of liens or arbitral awards against blocked property, or dealings involving blocked vessels.
• General License 54B replaces License 54A and authorizes US persons to supply goods, software, technology, and services for mineral exploration, development, extraction, processing, refining, and production in Venezuela, including gold operations.
The authorization includes maintenance and repair services but continues to prohibit the establishment of new joint ventures or companies for Venezuelan mining operations.
• General License 61A replaces General License 61, issued only six days earlier, and maintains authorization for US companies and persons to supply goods, technology, software, and services for Venezuelan telecommunications.
The license explicitly covers transactions involving the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) and the state-owned telecommunications company CANTV. It authorizes equipment installation, maintenance, repairs, upgrades, technical support, payment processing, logistics, roaming agreements, infrastructure leases, submarine cables, software licensing, and related services.
US Treasury Department Issues Sanctions Waivers for Venezuela Telecom Services, Contracts
However, the comparison shows that License 61A does not add new telecommunications activities. Like the other seven amended licenses, it removes the requirement that contracts be interpreted under US law while retaining the obligation to resolve disputes in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, or Singapore.
The license also preserves the exclusion of transactions involving people or entities connected to Russia, Iran, the DPRK, Cuba, or China. This restriction is particularly significant for Venezuela, given CANTV’s longstanding technological cooperation with Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE.
License 61A similarly continues to prohibit the creation of new joint ventures or entities to develop or invest in Venezuela’s telecommunications sector.
• A separate General License 62, issued alongside the original License 61 on August 21, allows negotiations for prospective telecommunications contracts but does not authorize their execution. Final agreements contemplated under License 62 still require specific OFAC approval.
The August 27 package therefore removes one legal barrier for contracts in key Venezuelan sectors while leaving Washington’s wider sanctions structure intact. Rather than relinquishing control, the United States is recalibrating its restrictions to make participation by US and allied corporations more commercially workable under Venezuela’s evolving investment framework.
Orinoco Tribune special
OT/JRE/SF
