Trump announces the end of oil licenses to Venezuela granted by Biden

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced Wednesday that It will end the licenses for the export of oil that its predecessor, Joe Biden, granted Venezuela And he explained that these concessions, which benefited the oil company Chevron, will no longer be in force as of March 1.

Trump made the announcement through a message on his social Truth network, in which he criticized the «regime» of Nicolás Maduro for not having accelerated the deportation of the «violent criminals» that, according to him, Caracas sent to the United States and that they should have been repatriated «at a fast pace.»

In his publication, the president said he had decided to revoke the concessions granted in November 2022 by the Biden government, which allowed Chevron to increase their production in Venezuela and export oil from the country.

At that time, the Biden administration authorized oil exports with the hope of getting guarantees for the elections that Venezuela celebrated in July last year and in which Maduro was proclaimed winner, although many countries – including the United States – consider that the winner was the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia.

«We are reversing the concessions that the corrupt Joe Biden granted to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, in the Agreement on Petroleum Transactions of November 26, 2022, as well as those related to the electoral conditions within Venezuela, that Maduro’s regime has not fulfilled«Trump announced.

The president also assured that he had ordered that the agreement end «as of March 1, without renewal option.»

Chevron’s departure is an economic setback for Venezuela

Under the terms of the current license, granted by the Biden government, Chevron was allowed to operate in Venezuela until the end of July, So Trump’s decision advances the cessation of the activity in several months.

Chevron’s departure is an economic setback for Venezuela, because the American oil company had contributed to the reactivation of the oil production of the Caribbean country, which in February of this year, exceeded for the first time the million barrels per day (BPD) since June 2019, according to figures of the organization of oil export countries (OPEC).

Chevron is the only great American oil company that operates in Venezuela. In association with Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), it reached a production of more than 200,000 barrels per day in 2024, according to data from the US Congress Research Service (CRS), an independent analysis agency.

The license that Biden granted Chevron in 2022 allowed the oil company to expand its production range in Venezuela. However, the company decided not to compromise more capital due to the temporal nature of the permit and, in the last two years, it has focused mainly on the repair of wells and oil facilities.

Last week, Trump had already hinted at several statements to the press his intention to revoke the license that allowed Chevron to operate in Venezuela. During his interventions, he said he did not understand why the country was «Millions of dollars» of dollars thanks to that operation.

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had also criticized the license, considering it a key source of dollar financing for the Maduro government.

EFE