US president Donald Trump said today he will revoke a 2022 authorization for Chevron to lift crude cargoes from its joint venture with Venezuelan state-owned PdV.
Trump did not explicitly reference Chevron, but his description of a waiver from Venezuela sanctions he said he was revoking matches the US major's authorization date and terms.
The Chevron authorization would terminate on 1 March, Trump said. The company was not immediately available to comment.
Former president Joe Biden's administration allowed Chevron to resume cargo loadings from Venezuela, only for imports into the US, in October 2022, as part of a deal with Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's government to encourage holding free elections.
The US imported 222,000 b/d of crude from Venezuela in January-November 2024, US Energy Information Administration data show.
While insignificant for total US crude imports, Venezuela cargoes amounted to about 10pc of Chevron's global liquids output as of last year.
Chevron's Venezuela presence did not result in major financial gains for Caracas. But it allowed PdV to stabilize and then grow Venezuela's crude output.
Venezuela's crude production, including liquids and condensates, held at about 1.04mn b/d in January, according to PdV.
The Trump administration appeared willing to retain the Chevron authorization as long as the Maduro government cooperated on accepting Venezuelan nationals deported from the US. Trump's envoy Ric Grenell traveled to Caracas last month to discuss cooperation on migrants, and he suggested over the weekend that the US was no longer interested in a change of Venezuela's government.
But Trump said today that the Maduro government "has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole' U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to."
The US Treasury Department has yet to confirm details of the new Venezuela sanctions regime as described by Trump.
