Trump Administration Eases U.S. Sanctions on Venezuelan Oil Company PdVSA — OPIS

The Treasury Department on Wednesday eased U.S. sanctions against Venezuela's national oil company PdVSA as the Trump administration seeks to boost output from the oil-rich South American country.

The move also comes as weekly U.S. crude imports from Venezuela rose to a 15-month high last week, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

The special license issued by the Treasury Department allows U.S. companies and others to buy oil from PdVSA, removing many of the restrictions that have been in place since 2019. The move is viewed as an effort to boost global supply amid disruptions caused by the continuing conflict in the Middle East and to clear the way for U.S. companies to invest in Venezuelan oil production, which has largely been crippled as the country's economy under U.S. sanctions.

The license requires that any payment made under the license be deposited into the Treasury Department's Foreign Government Deposit Funds or other Treasury accounts.

The license, however, doesn't affect protections the Trump administration put in place to protect Venezeulan-owned oil major Citgo from being seized by creditors. Trump originally put those protections in place in 2019 after PdVSA defaulted on bonds that used a 50.1% stake in Citgo as collateral. Those protections have been extended since then under the Biden administration and the second Trump administration, with the latest extension set to expire on Friday.

Those protections are important, as lawsuits by Venezuelan creditors proceed seeking to force the sale of Citgo to settle billions of dollars in debts and arbitration awards work their way through U.S. Courts. Amber Energy, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, is still waiting to learn if the department will approve its $5.89 billion purchase of Citgo's parent company after the company won a court-ordered auction.

The Trump administration has been easing sanctions on Venezuela since U.S. forces seized President Nicolás Maduro in early January. The administration also has been lobbying U.S. oil companies, some of which saw their assets in the country ntionalized under Maduro and former President Hugo Chávez, to begin new operations there.

U.S. imports of Venezuelan oil have increased since the U.S. capture of Maduro.

EIA on reported U.S. imports from Venezuela averaged 423,000 b/d in the week ended Friday. That was 25% above the next-highest 2026 weekly average of 339,000 b/d in the week ended Feb. 20 and the highest weekly average since Dec. 13, 2024. It was also the second-highest weekly average since early February 2019.

Venezuela was the fourth-highest country of origin for oil exports to the U.S., behind Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Imports from Saudi Arabia have yet to show the impact of the fighting in the region, as it takes about five to seven weeks for shipments from the kingdom to reach U.S. import terminals on the East, Gulf or West coasts, according to EIA.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

-- Reporting by Steven Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeffrey Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 18, 2026 16:57 ET (20:57 GMT)