Licenses may remain until Trump takes office. Maduro gets maximum reward offer of $25 million

Kate Winston, Platts S&P Global

WASHINGTON
EnergiesNet.com 01 11 2025

The Biden administration decided to maintain the company-specific licenses allowing Chevron and others to operate in Venezuela’s oil sector despite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro being sworn Jan. 10 into a presidency he is widely believed to have lost.

Senior officials in the Biden administration suggested that the licenses might continue through the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

“We certainly, depending on the events that we see unfold in the next 10 days, are ready to make a set of recommendations to the incoming administration with respect to the future of these licenses,” a senior Biden administration official said during a Jan. 10 press briefing.

“Maduro has demonstrated once again his complete disregard for democratic norms and is proceeding with an illegitimate inauguration,” the senior Biden administration official said.

Machado hopeful

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado called Maduro’s inauguration a coup d’état and a violation of the nation’s constitution.

Machado spoke on Instagram on Jan. 10, after being arrested and released after a rally on Jan. 9. Machado credited pressure from the international community for her release.

“Thanks to international pressure they made them understand that it was a mistake to arrest me,” Machado said. “We all know that in the coming days the pressure will increase until they make Maduro understand that this is over,” she said.

Edmundo González Urrutia had planned to arrive in Venezuela to be sworn in Jan. 10, after winning the July 28 election with 67% of the vote, according to results provided by the opposition.

But Machado said she told him not to come to Venezuela because Maduro had closed the air space and activated the country’s defense system.

“Edmundo González will come to Venezuela to be sworn in at the right time with the conditions are right,” Machado said. “Maduro will not be able to rule by force a country that decided to liberate itself,” she said.

US sanctions

The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on eight Maduro-aligned officials, including Hector Andres Obregon Perez, the president of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA.

“Since last year’s election, Maduro and his associates have continued their repressive actions in Venezuela,” said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith.

“The United States, together with our likeminded partners, stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan people’s vote for new leadership and rejects Maduro’s fraudulent claim of victory,” Smith said in a statement.

Similar actions were taken by Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom, according to the Treasury statement.

The US Department of State also increased the reward offers to up to $25 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro, and Maduro’s Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello. The Department also added a new reward of up to $15 million for Maduro’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino.

The State Department also imposed new visa restrictions on Maduro-aligned officials who have undermined the electoral process in Venezuela and are responsible for acts of oppression, according to the Treasury statement.

The US is also taking additional steps to limit any potential revenue to Maduro and its representatives, including by continuing to approve licenses seeking to attach Venezuelan sovereign assets in third countries to satisfy a legally recognized debt, according to the senior administration official.

The Department of Homeland Security also extended for 18 months the temporary protected status for Venezuela, allowing Venezuelan nationals living in the US to remain in the US. The extension is warranted “based on the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime,” the DHS said in a Jan. 10 statement.

spglobal.com 01 10 2025