OFAC announces GL44A and specific licenses

The OFAC will replace General License 44 with GL 44A, which will last until 31 May this year. GL44 allowed for the purchase of Venezuelan oil and gas.

GL44A will give time to wind down operations but, most importantly, for companies to request a specific license (SL).

SLs are non-public authorisations, unlike a GL. They are given on a case-by-case basis. According the US government, they will “take into consideration the national security interests and foreign policy interests of the US through close consultation with and receiving foreign policy guidance from our State Department.”

This measure will not affect GL 41 (Chevron) or GL 8M (4 US companies that give services to Chevron).

 We see that the bottom line is that the Biden administration wants to allow Western companies re-enter Venezuela. This would be one step to help the economy grow and reduce emigration, and bring a natural-resource rich country back into the fold. 

Yesterday, we also saw that Venezuela’s National Assembly—the one in Caracas—approved the creation of a Brazilian-PDVSA joint venture, Petrororaima, and the expansion of Repsol-PDVSA venture Petroquiriquire.