The Biden administration has reportedly allowed Chevron Corp. to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the Venezuelan government, despite a license explicitly preventing such payments, according to anonymous sources. This supplement, related to a November 2022 sanctions waiver, enabled Chevron to adhere to U.S. laws while paying taxes and oil royalties to President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, sources familiar with the situation have indicated. The original waiver from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had granted Chevron limited operational permissions in Venezuela.
The Trump administration subsequently terminated this arrangement, requiring Chevron to wind down its Venezuelan operations. Chevron asserted in a statement that it conducts global business in compliance with all legal and regulatory frameworks, including U.S. government sanctions. The U.S. Treasury Department, responsible for overseeing sanctions waivers, opted not to comment.
The general license in question allowed Chevron to extract and export Venezuelan crude but prohibited the payment of taxes, royalties, or dividends to the Venezuelan government or state-controlled entities. However, as per some sources, a concealed addition to the waiver allowed certain business-essential payments. Last year, Chevron submitted documents to Venezuelan authorities, indicating approximately $300 million in accrued taxes, as observed by Bloomberg News. U.S. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, criticized the arrangement and called for Chevron’s waiver to be revoked.
Chevron is now the only major U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela after nationalizations by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, in the 2000s prompted other companies to depart and seek compensation. Chevron’s Venezuelan operations were hindered by sanctions during the first Trump administration. However, this changed in 2022, when the Biden administration reached an agreement encouraging Maduro to hold democratic elections in exchange for Chevron resuming operations.
The expansion of oil production has contributed to stabilizing Venezuela’s economy by bringing essential dollars and alleviating inflationary pressures. Nevertheless, Maduro retreated from several democratic commitments, including obstructing his main opponent from running elections and declaring himself the victor without evidence. His regime took a more autocratic turn, detaining over 2,500 people and forcing opposition candidate Edmundo González to flee.
During a Senate confirmation hearing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented that the Biden administration was “played” as companies like Chevron were funneling significant funds into the regime, which subsequently failed to uphold its promises. The exact sums paid by Chevron could not be independently confirmed.
Juan Gonzalez, leading U.S. policy toward Venezuela as the senior director for the Western Hemisphere on the White House National Security Council, stated that revoking Chevron’s license would push oil sales toward China on the black market, benefiting Maduro and preventing the U.S. company from reclaiming dues.
Chevron’s ties with Venezuela have come under scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has set a 30-day deadline to conclude joint venture operations with state-owned PDVSA. However, due to lobbying by Chevron, the administration is expected to prolong the deadline by at least another 30 days. One stipulation for this extension could involve redirecting taxes and royalties toward financing migrant deportations rather than directly benefiting the Maduro regime, according to sources.
