Venezuela sanctions spotlight
Overview
US sanctions on Venezuela’s national oil company PdV, first imposed on 28 January 2019, cast another layer of geopolitical uncertainty onto the international oil market. The sanctions take effect in stages, gradually intensifying their impact on the Opec country’s imports and exports.
For international oil companies, traders and governments around the world, the sanctions rollout and partial unwinding of commercial ties will help to shape near-term market dynamics, with longer-term implications for energy policy and investment.
Follow along with Argus as we deliver the latest news and market analysis on this fast-developing story.
Timeline: Key Venezuela sanctions dates
Related news and analysis
Curacao awaits US permit to reopen shuttered refinery
Curacao awaits US permit to reopen shuttered refinery
Kingston, 20 November (Argus) — Curacao has again asked the US to let it do business with Venezuela's state oil company PdV and reopen its shuttered Isla refinery, a government official told Argus this week. Curacao needs the US approval to process crude from neighboring Venezuela, but the request made "a few weeks ago" has not yet been granted by Washington's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the official said. The 335,000 b/d Isla refinery has been shuttered since 2019 when a long-term lease to PdV expired. An OFAC license for Curacao to process Venezuelan crude expired in December 2024. Prior efforts to restart the refinery have been set back by Washington's economic sanctions on Caracas. Government-owned company 2Bays Energy said earlier this month it is seeking an agreement similar to one given by OFAC to US major Chevron to conduct limited transactions with PdV at the refinery. "We are encouraged by the permit to Chevron, and by the fact that our request to OFAC has not been immediately rejected," the official said. "The infrastructure, the partners, and the workforce are ready — we are simply waiting for the green light from Washington." The reopening of the refinery would run counter to a regional trend that saw failed attempts to maintain or restart aging refineries in Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands, while the Dominican Republic and Jamaica have contemplated the future of their refineries that were once co-owned by PdV. A permit from Washington would also allow PdV to supply crude to settle $450mn in outstanding debts to Curacao, which is a self-governing department of the Netherlands. Curacao terminated negotiations in February 2023 with US-Brazilian consortium CPR to restart the facility. It earlier failed to reach an agreement for Isla with several firms, including China's GZE, Germany's Klesch and a consortium led by Dutch contractor Corc. By Canute James Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Venezuela's Maduro seeks talks with US
Venezuela's Maduro seeks talks with US
Caracas, 18 November (Argus) — Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro has reciprocated President Donald Trump's openness to talks between the two governments as Caracas faces a large US military presence in the Caribbean. "Whoever in the US wants to talk with Venezuela, we'll talk," Maduro said late on Monday after Trump indicated earlier that day that he was willing to talk with Maduro. The Venezuelan also sang Imagine by John Lennon during a public rally earlier this week to appeal for peace. Trump, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said that Maduro "wants to talk", but pivoted to a diatribe about Maduro allegedly sending "all of their prison population into the United States". Trump frequently casts Venezuelan immigrants in the US as dangerous criminals, whom he wants to deport back to their country. The US does not recognize the Maduro administration as legitimate, and secretary of state Marco Rubio said he will designate Maduro and other top officials as part of a foreign terrorist organization. The US has amassed about 10pc of its navy in the Caribbean in recent weeks and carried out at least 20 fatal attacks on boats it alleged were ferrying drugs to the US. Crude talks The actions had not deterred crude shipments from Venezuela, but ship tracking data indicates some slowing this week. US company Chevron continues to operate in Venezuela, where it resumed crude exports to the US in August after the Trump administration reinstated modified version of its sanctions waiver to do so. Venezuela produces about 1mn b/d of crude, with about 150,000 b/d of that going to the US in October. Chevron exported roughly 400,000 b/d of crude earlier in 2025. But crude exports to the US have ebbed slightly, with no new exports of Venezuela's Merey crude grade to the US slated for this week, based on ship tracking data from Kpler. Merey is the most common grade exported to the US. A source with Chevron in Venezuela also indicated that there seem to be no new movements for now to the US, although Venezuela's exports to China continue. Venezuela's state-owned PdV declined to comment. Sometimes demand for heavy crude for US refiners will flag later in the year, as they work to reduce stocks, market sources have indicated. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US, allies fall out over Venezuela: Update
US, allies fall out over Venezuela: Update
Adds update on US operations, Venezuelan opposition comment. Washington, 13 November (Argus) — US president Donald Trump's administration is pushing back on allies' criticism of its strong-arm approach toward Venezuela — the latest point of disagreement within the G7 group of major economies. The US has built up a large naval presence near Venezuela since early September — including the Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier strike group as of 11 November — and has carried out almost 20 lethal attacks on small boats it accuses of ferrying drugs. US defense secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday labeled efforts to remove "narco-terrorists from our hemisphere" as Operation Southern Spear, to be led by the Southern Command which oversees military forces in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The US administration's legal pretext for the build up and Trump's statements that he is considering attacks on Venezuela's soil have come under skeptical review from US lawmakers from both parties. G7 foreign ministers ahead and during their meeting in Canada on 10-11 November expressed similar sentiments. The US strikes against boats disregard international law, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said. There is no legal basis for the US attacks, EU foreign affairs commissioner Kaja Kallas told NBC News on Wednesday. "I don't think that the EU gets to determine what international law is," US secretary of state Marco Rubio told reporters late on Wednesday. "I do find it interesting that all of these countries want us to send and supply, for example, nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe, but when the US positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere where we live, somehow that's a problem." The EU has backed Ukraine's request last month to equip Ukrainian forces with Tomahawk missiles to enable Kyiv to strike targets deep inside Russia. But Trump appears to have denied the request. The US armada assembled near Venezuela, including the Gerald R Ford group, carries an estimated 170 Tomahawks, defense experts Mark Cancian and Chris Park with think tank the Center for Security and International Studies wrote on 10 November. The Tomahawk inventory is comparable with the number of missiles the US military previously used in campaigns of limited duration, such as in Libya in 2011, the experts said. US naval maneuvers and boat strikes so far have had no impact on Venezuela's oil exports and energy shipments across the Caribbean. Chevron — allowed to resume business in Venezuela just before the naval build up began — appears to have imported 155,000 b/d to the US from Venezuela in October, based on data from Kpler ship tracking. Venezuela's crude output was at an estimated 1.1mn b/d in October. Independent refiners in China absorb the bulk of Venezuelan crude exports not loaded by Chevron. Venezuelan imports to China were at an estimated 500,000 b/d in October, with many more cargoes available than there are buyers, despite Merey discounts widening to $12/bl against Ice Brent. What next? The US has not carried out a unilateral military intervention in the western hemisphere since 1989, when it toppled Panamanian president Manuel Noriega's government and transported him to the US where he was convicted in court of involvement in drug trafficking. Trump, Rubio and other US officials have made public statements suggesting that removing Maduro from power is among possible options for the US naval force. Maduro faces a US prosecutors' indictment over alleged drug trafficking and the US has offered a $50mn bounty for his capture. Venezuela this week passed a law obligating the general population to defend Maduro's regime, with the president calling for "maximum preparation". Additional military forces have not been highly visible in the capital of Caracas in recent days. Interior minister Diosdado Cabello threatened members of Venezuela's political opposition, saying "don't say we didn't warn you" if the US "does anything to any of us." Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said from hiding late on Wednesday that Venezuela is "in the final hours" of what will be a "peaceful transition." But the US military resources assembled in the Caribbean suggest that a full blown invasion is not likely. Trump's deployment of the US military has been more limited so far this year — bombing Yemen's Houthis and Iran, and quickly declaring victory. "Attacks on the cartels have the advantage that the US can walk away at any time ... claiming that it damaged cartel operations and thereby reduced the flow of drugs into the US," Cancian and Park wrote. The Trump administration has told US lawmakers that its military operations are a "non-international armed conflict" with an unspecified group of "designated terrorist organizations". A legal opinion written by Trump's Justice Department in late July — and shared with the US Congress in early November — did not explicitly mention Venezuela and merely asserted the right to target trans-national criminal organizations anywhere, by all means. By Haik Gugarats Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Eyes averted from the prize in Venezuela
Eyes averted from the prize in Venezuela
The US is stepping up threats of military action against Caracas while also easing economic restrictions on it, write Haik Gugarats and Carlos Camacho Caracas, 17 October (Argus) — The US is considering strikes on Venezuelan soil and sea just days after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize, highlighting the warring currents over the South American crude producer. But neither event looks set to imminently shift Venezuela's political leadership or its energy trade. US president Donald Trump on 15 October publicly weighed military strikes inside Venezuela and said he authorised covert CIA operations in that country. "We are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea under control," Trump said. The US has a naval task force of at least five ships off Venezuela's coast that since early September has destroyed five boats allegedly carrying drugs in international waters, killing 27 people. Caracas complained to the UN security council last week that it had evidence an "armed attack by the [US] against Venezuela may occur in the very near future", and this week protested against incursions by US B-52 bombers in its airspace. But the US force of about 3,500 Marines and 3,400 naval personnel would fall far short of the number needed for a full-scale invasion, Washington-based think-tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies says. At least 48,000 soldiers would be needed for a ground invasion, it estimates. And opinions on a Venezuela strategy are divided within the Trump administration. Secretary of state Marco Rubio has led a harder line, while presidential special envoy Ric Grenell — who in February was key in freeing US hostages held in Venezuela — is still pushing for peaceful engagement. The White House's reaction to Machado's award sent clearer signals. Communications director Steven Cheung complained about it and Trump, while he reposted Machado's message of thanks for his support, also shared Russian president Vladimir Putin's criticism of the Nobel prize committee's choice and praise of Trump. Machado has been in hiding in Venezuela since the last presidential election in July 2024, when she was barred from running and president Nicolas Maduro claimed a third term over her proxy despite international condemnation. The prize should keep Machado safe, "since the cost of detaining her has now risen", consultancy Teneo political analyst Nick Watson says. "However, the award will not necessarily be a catalyst for regime change." And it could make it harder for her to call openly for US military intervention in Venezuela. The opposition has a detailed plan for opening Venezuela to foreign energy investment if handed the keys to government, but some military analysts argue a limited US intervention would mostly open a power vacuum for guerrillas and drug traffickers to fill. Contradictory signals And despite an increase in its bellicose rhetoric, the US has eased some restrictions on doing business in Venezuela — a move at odds with the opposition's request for the US to step up economic pressure on Maduro. Trinidad and Tobago again has a licence from the US that allows it to resume developing a major gas field in Venezuelan waters just across its maritime border, the Caribbean islands' attorney general, John Jeremie, said last week. US major Chevron continues to export Venezuelan crude to the US, as it has done since Washington reinstated its sanctions waiver in August. About 131,000 b/d went to the US from Venezuela in September, out of a total 968,000 b/d of exports. China, the largest single buyer of Venezuela's discounted sanctioned crude, took 359,000 b/d, according to trade analytics platform Kpler. The US has threatened secondary sanctions on Venezuelan crude buyers, but has so far imposed none. And Russia is currently Venezuela's main supplier of naphtha used to dilute its extra-heavy crude, sending 69,000 b/d in September and October. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Map: Primary Venezuelan oil assets
