Washington– The U.S. government has granted the Chevron oil company a special license to continue drilling in Venezuela for three months despite a ban on U.S. companies from doing business with President Nicolás Maduro’s government.The Treasury Department renewed the license to Chevron and four service providers that are among the last U.S. companies operating in the oil-rich country on Friday and until April 22. It is the fourth time that the United States has banned companies from the ban in Venezuela.Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has been operating in Venezuela for nearly a century.
Its four joint ventures with the state monopoly PDVSA produce 200,000 barrels per day, almost a quarter of Total Venezuelan production, according to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
So the Treasury Department decided that a Saturday at 1 a.m. was a good time to publish extensions to licensed to Venezuela sanctions for Chevron and 2020 bondholders pic.twitter.com/gPOF9F57pG — Luc Cohen (@cohenluc)
January 18, 2020
Venezuela’s opposition argues that Chevron’s presence in the country threatens President Donald Trump’s goal of provoking Maduro’s downfall because it provides him with a lifeline in the form of export dollars the regime needs to continue.
Original source in Spanish
