Oil worker operating a drill at a PDVSA/Chevron rig in Venezuela. Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg.
US President Donald Trump has announced that he will end the oil export licenses granted to Venezuela by his predecessor, Joe Biden, reporting that these concessions, which benefited the oil company Chevron and the US oil market, will no longer be valid as of March 1.
Trump made the announcement this Wednesday, February 26, in a message on Truth Social, in which he criticized the government of Nicolás Maduro for not having accelerated the deportation of what he called “violent criminals” that, according to him, Caracas supposedly sent to the US empire, and who should have been repatriated “at a rapid pace.”
The announcement was made unilaterally, despite the fact that Venezuela is the only country between the two that, from the outset, sent four planes of its public flagship airline Conviasa to the US, to be available for Venezuelan migrants to return back home. The government of Nicolás Maduro created the Vuelta a la Patria program in 2018 to repatriate Venezuelans who wish to return to the country from various nations. Within this program alone, almost 600 Venezuelans have already been able to return to their country.
In his post, the US president wrote that he had decided to revoke the concessions granted in November 2022 by the Biden administration, which allowed Chevron to increase its production in Venezuela and export oil from the South American country.
“We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement,” he wrote, “dated November 26, 2022, and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime. Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ US) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to. I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden “Concession Agreement” be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Under the terms of the current license granted by the Biden administration, Chevron was allowed to operate in Venezuela until the end of July, so Trump’s decision brings forward the cessation of activity by several months.
Sanction regime
Chevron’s withdrawal resumes one of the 930-plus sanctions that the US empire has imposed against the people of Venezuela. The resumption of operations by the US company had contributed to the reactivation of oil production in the Caribbean country, which in February of this year exceeded one million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since June 2019, according to figures from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Chevron is the only major US oil company operating in Venezuela. In partnership with the publicly-owned PetrĂłleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), it had reached production closed to 200,000 bpd by 2024, according to data by the US Congressional Research Service.
Grenell Reshuffles the Game in Venezuela, at Home and Abroad
The license Biden granted Chevron in 2022 allowed the oil company to expand its production range in Venezuela. However, the company decided not to commit more capital due to the temporary nature of the permit and, over the past two years, has focused primarily on repairing oil wells and facilities.
In recent weeks, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a fierce opponent of the Bolivarian revolution, and President Trump himself, had criticized the extension of the concession to Chevron, and had threatened to suspend it.
(Ăšltimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
