Trump Admin Gives Chevron Hard Deadline To Stop Operating In Venezuela's Oil Fields

The Trump administration has given Chevron a hard deadline to cease its oil operations in Venezuela after revoking its license last week.

Concretely, the Treasury Department is giving the company until April 3 to stop operations, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Chevron has ramped up production in the South American country over the past years, now representing about a fifth of its overall output. Its activities have helped prop up Venezuela's battered economy.

Critics have argued that the company's operations are providing a lifeline to an authoritarian regime that has encroached to power through fraudulent ways.

Trump announced the decision on February 26, also claiming the "regime" is not taking back "violent criminals" at the agreed-upon speed. Should he ultimately move forward, he would reverse the oil-related concessions granted to Venezuela by the Biden administration in 2022. The move was part of a broader diplomatic effort to encourage democratic reforms in Venezuela and facilitate humanitarian aid.

However, after Maduro's authoritarian government proclaimed itself winner of last year's presidential election despite not showing backing documentation, Biden reinstated broad sanctions in April 2024, though he left the Chevron license in place.

Trump claimed that Maduro had not adhered to promised electoral reforms and had failed to repatriate Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. at the expected pace.

"We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022, and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime," Trump wrote. "Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole' U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to."

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez reacted to the decision on the same day, saying the "United States government has made a damaging and inexplicable decision; by announcing sanctions against the American company Chevron, intending to harm the Venezuelan people, in reality, it is inflicting harm on the United States, its population, and its companies, also calling into question the legal security of the United States in its international investment regime."

Rodríguez blasted the sanctions, warning they would deepen economic turmoil and drive even more Venezuelans to flee.

"The constitutional government of Venezuela and its people, in great national unity, categorically reject this type of action publicly requested by the extremist and failed opposition of the country. Venezuela highlights that this type of failed action drove migration from 2017 to 2021 with the widely known consequences."