Republicans criticized the Biden administration for years for allowing Chevron to export oil from Venezuela, arguing that it helped finance President Nicolás Maduro’s totalitarian and corrupt government.
After returning to power, President Trump halted and then changed the terms of Chevron’s operations in Venezuela, contending that it minimizes the company’s financial transfers to the country. Rather than funneling dollars into Venezuela directly, Chevron now hands part of the oil it produces to the Venezuelan government, which continues to own the oil fields. But, data shows, the biggest beneficiary of the new arrangement has been a businessman the U.S. government has imposed sanctions on for working with the Maduro family.
Internal data from Venezuela’s state oil company, known as PDVSA, shows that an oil trading company linked to the sanctioned businessman has sold all of the crude that the Venezuelan government has received from Chevron’s largest oil field since the Trump administration allowed the company to resume exporting from Venezuela this summer.
Since July, the trading company connected to the businessman, a Panamanian named Ramón Carretero, has sold roughly $500 million worth of crude from the Petroboscán oil field, the data shows.
The Trump administration appears to be aware of the potential windfall for the Maduro regime and moved on Tuesday to cut it off. Mr. Trump on Tuesday night declared that he was imposing a “blockade’’ on sanctioned oil tankers moving into or out of Venezuela. Last Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department applied sanctions on Mr. Carretero for working “on behalf of the Venezuelan government.”
Mr. Carretero’s oil trade underlines the conflicting tactics pursued by the Trump administration in its escalating standoff with Mr. Maduro, whom it has labeled a “narco-terrorist.”
On the one hand, the Trump administration has moved to cut off Mr. Maduro’s funding and isolate his government, including seizing a tanker last week tied to Mr. Carretero. On the other, the White House has allowed Chevron to continue working in Venezuela to preserve the United States’ footprint in a country with vast natural reserves, according to people close to the administration.
Under the new license, which has not been made public, the company was no longer to pay royalties through private banks, but instead had to give PDVSA its share of the oil as an in-kind payment.
PDVSA data shows that the main direct financial beneficiaries of Chevron’s current license has been a trading firm controlled by Mr. Carretero, the businessman now under sanctions for ties to Mr. Maduro.
The data shows that the firm, Shineful Energy, has won all the contracts to export PDVSA’s share of the crude from Petroboscán since July. Those contracts add up to nearly 11 million barrels. That oil is owned and distributed by PDVSA, and Chevron plays no part in its sale.
Shineful exports Venezuelan oil almost exclusively to China, in complex transactions involving cryptocurrency, according to people inside Venezuela’s oil industry, who discussed sensitive topics on condition of anonymity.
Posted by John3262005