OFAC amends Venezuela licenses spanning energy, minerals and telecoms

WASHINGTON, August 27, 2026 — The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control updated eight general licenses governing defined activity under its Venezuela sanctions program, covering major segments of the country’s energy, mining and telecommunications sectors.

The measures address Venezuelan-origin oil and petrochemical products, sales of US-origin diluents to Venezuela, and US-provided goods, technology, software or services for oil, gas, petrochemical and electricity operations. Petrochemical products under two licenses include fertilizer products and fertilizer precursor chemicals.

A separate authorization covers oil and gas operations involving six named companies and their subsidiaries. Another permits established US entities to handle Venezuelan-origin minerals, including gold, while excluding exploration, mining, extraction and production inside Venezuela.

The five licenses available in detail require contracts with specified Venezuelan government entities to place dispute-resolution proceedings in the United States, United Kingdom, France or Singapore. Four also direct certain payments to blocked persons into Treasury-designated Foreign Government Deposit Funds or another account instructed by Treasury.

Reporting obligations apply across those authorizations. The oil, diluent, energy-input and named-company licenses require an initial report within 10 days of the first covered transaction and reports every 90 days while activity continues. The minerals license requires reporting every 30 days and documentation of supply-chain due diligence plans.

Those licenses generally exclude blocked vessels and retain restrictions involving certain parties linked to Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba or China, although the precise exclusions vary by authorization. They replaced earlier licenses dated June 10.

OFAC also amended licenses covering certain transactions involving Petróleos de Venezuela, supplies for minerals operations and telecommunications-related supplies. It issued two new Venezuela FAQs, amended two others and archived one, but their contents were not included in the available materials.