Guacamaya, February 26, 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday his intention to suspend General License 41, which allows Chevron to operate in Venezuela despite economic sanctions on the country.
On March 2, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stated that it would soon detail how General License 41 and other “specific licenses” for oil companies in Venezuela, such as Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel et Prom, would be dismantled.
The authorization for the American corporation, which has been automatically renewed every month, would end on March 1, according to the announcement made on Truth Social, the platform owned by the president. “Hereby, we are reversing the concessions that the corrupt Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela regarding the oil transaction agreement dated November 26, 2022.”
Trump cited “electoral conditions within Venezuela” and the fact that “the regime has not been deporting the violent criminals they sent to our country back to Venezuela at the fast pace they had agreed to” as reasons for the decision.
On January 31, the Presidential Envoy for Special Missions, Richard Grenell, met with Nicolás Maduro in Caracas to agree, among other matters, on the resumption of repatriation flights from the United States to Venezuela. In a February 22 interview, Grenell stated that hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who had illegally crossed the border with Mexico had already been deported.
According to a source within the Trump administration, who preferred to remain anonymous, the announcement to end the “Chevron license” was likely due to a condition imposed by Florida representatives in Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, in exchange for approving the “reconciliation law” on the federal budget.
The revocation of the license could also be related to Trump’s negotiation style. In the early days of his presidency, he had already threatened tariffs of 10% to 25% on Mexico, Canada, and Colombia—the latter also facing economic sanctions—to secure concessions from their governments. These three countries are important trading partners of the United States. On this occasion, Trump may be trying to pressure Maduro to accept repatriated migrants at a faster pace or to offer economic concessions, as he has also demanded from Ukraine.
The Chevron license is of utmost importance to the Venezuelan economy. Primarily, by purchasing bolivars, it contributes millions of dollars through Venezuelan private banking, providing stability to the exchange market. It employs thousands of workers and service companies, supporting local economies near its operations. Its joint ventures with PDVSA reportedly paid $4 billion in taxes over the past two years, according to Ecoanalítica.
Chevron’s joint ventures—Petroboscán, Petropiar, Petroindependencia, and Petroindependiente—produced an average of 242,000 barrels per day in January 2025, according to data from state-owned PDVSA. Chevron and, to a lesser extent, Repsol exported an average of 230,000 barrels per day to the U.S. in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In a statement, Executive Vice President and Minister of Hydrocarbons Delcy Rodríguez described Trump’s decision as “harmful and inexplicable,” stating that by reintroducing sanctions on Chevron, “the United States is actually inflicting harm on itself, its population, and its businesses, while also undermining the legal security of the U.S. in its international investment regime.”
