(Rafael Ramírez, 16.Nov.2023) — On 18 Oct., the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)[1] issued Licenses 43 and 44,[2] lifting the sanctions on the Venezuelan oil and mining sector that had been in place since Jan. 2019. The OFAC measure is of a temporary nature, for a period of six months, subject to compliance by the Venezuelan government with the political agreements signed on 17 Oct. with sectors of the opposition in Barbados.[3]
Although the state-owned oil and gas company PDVSA is no longer subject to any type of restriction, the increase in oil production will be limited in the short and medium term, given the dimension of the Venezuelan oil collapse in the last decade,[4] which was largely due to the massive deterioration of the country’s political and economic situation, as well as to the mismanagement of the oil industry and the political persecution within PDVSA.
