The Spanish oil company Repsol is negotiating “intensively” with the government of U.S. President Donald Trump on an agreement to collect €330 million — equivalent to more than US$387 million — in oil and naphtha from Venezuela. Photograph: Repsol Multimedia Gallery
Guacamaya, October 2, 2025. The Spanish oil company Repsol is in advanced talks with the Donald Trump administration to receive more than 330 million euros (about 387 million dollars) in crude oil and derivatives as part of the payment for the debt that Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) has with the company.
According to energy sector sources cited by the newspaper “Expansión,” the negotiation is “particularly complex,” as it involves Washington authorizing Repsol to accept shipments of Venezuelan oil and naphtha as a compensation mechanism. The Spanish company insists that this agreement would not represent new investments in the South American country, where it claims to have frozen its financial activity for years.
Currently, Repsol and the Italian company Eni are jointly operating the Cardón IV project, which supplies about one-third of the gas consumed in Venezuela, despite not having received payments from PDVSA in the last five years. Repsol currently supplies 33% of the gas consumed in Venezuela. In Caracas, the company had already agreed some time ago with local authorities on a partial payment scheme using hydrocarbons, which it now also seeks to validate with the U.S. government.
The background of this negotiation goes beyond corporate interests. For Washington, the Repsol case fits into the sanctions strategy against Caracas, while for Spain, it is about protecting the interests of one of its main multinational companies. The outcome of these talks could set a precedent for how european companies manage their debts in sanctioned countries and, at the same time, test transatlantic coordination regarding Venezuela at a time when the administration has withheld approval of new oil licenses for european companies while granting one to the american company Chevron.
