(Bloomberg) – The Trump administration is preparing to issue a narrowly tailored license to Chevron Corp., allowing the oil producer to conduct minimal maintenance of essential operations in Venezuela, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Treasury Department plans to grant the waiver permitting Chevron to carry out only critical upkeep and safety-related functions in the sanctioned South American nation, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
The license would come at the end of a period when the U.S. has instructed Chevron and other U.S. companies to wind down their production operations in Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week that the U.S. would let the current license expire as scheduled on May 27.
The State Department referred to Rubio’s statement and offered no further comment. The Treasury Department declined to comment.
See also: Chevron must return Venezuelan oil before sanctions deadline, sources say
Rubio’s statement this week threw cold water on the expectation that the U.S. would allow Chevron to keep operating under its current license in Venezuela, an OPEC member, for an additional 60 days. Ric Grenell, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, had said an extension was coming after he met with Venezuelan officials this week and returned with a U.S. veteran who had been imprisoned there.
It couldn’t immediately be learned whether other U.S. companies operating in Venezuela would receive similar licenses to the one being contemplated for Chevron.
The more restrictive license could be a strategic win for all parties, potentially clearing the way for continued dialog between the two countries. However, the new waiver is expected to closely resemble the one Chevron held until November 2022. That previous authorization allowed Chevron and a handful of U.S. oil-service providers to maintain a limited presence in country but explicitly barred new investments or the export of Venezuelan crude.
The earlier license was set to expire in December 2022, but days before its expiration, the Biden administration granted Chevron a broader waiver to produce and sell oil in Venezuela. This was part of an effort to bring President Nicolás Maduro back to the negotiating table with the opposition to discuss conditions for a fairer presidential vote in 2024, an election that was later widely considered fraudulent.
That broader authorization was revoked by Trump in late February of this year. “We are hereby reversing the concessions that Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement,” Trump wrote in a social media post at the time.
On Friday, Rubio met with five Venezuelan opposition aides who recently escaped after more than a year in hiding in Argentina’s embassy in Caracas to avoid persecution by the Maduro regime. During the encounter, Rubio reaffirmed U.S. “support for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and the release of all political prisoners,” according to a statement.
