Washington Claims US Does Not Foresee Much Oil From Venezuela After Chevron Gets Extraction Permit

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States does not foresee big shipments of oil from Venezuela after the US Treasury Department granted Chevron an extraction permit, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.

“'l will let Chevron speak for this particular issue of sanctions relief, but our expectation is there won't be a lot of oil coming out of there. It will have to be shipped to the United States,” Kirby said on Monday. “It remains to be seen how much we'll get drilled down there. It'll be up to Chevron to decide that.”

Kirby pointed out that there are currently 9,000 unused permits for drilling on US federal lands for companies to take advantage of.

On Saturday, the US Treasury granted Chevron a general license allowing transactions by the California-based energy major that service oil production in Venezuela and its export to the United States.

Transactions performed by Chevron’s joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil giant PdVSA are authorized as long as they are related to "production and lifting of petroleum or petroleum products produced by the Chevron JVs." Sale to, exportation to, or importation into the US of petroleum produced by the Chevron JVs will be allowed as long as it is first sold to Chevron.

The United States granted the license after the Venezuelan government - led by Maduro - and the opposition resumed talks in Mexico City whereby they came to an agreement on addressing the humanitarian crisis in the country and continuing talks focused on the 2024 elections.

A source familiar with the matter told Sputnik that Western partners would need to be allowed to invest in Venezuela for oil production to move up, but such investments will take time given the US sanctions imposed on the country that are still in place.

The United States is looking at Venezuela as an additional source of crude oil, but has no intention of a blanket lifting of sanctions, sources told Sputnik earlier this month.

On Sunday, a senior Biden administration official said that US-imposed sanctions and restrictions still remain in place and the decision to grant a license should not be interpreted as a permissive environment on sanctions. However, the administration will consider whether its policies remain open to further calibrating of the sanctions which depends on Venezuela taking specific steps to address several key issues.