The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on July 7 extended for a year a general license that permits the export or re-export of LPG to Venezuela.

Extension of the license allows Venezuela to continue to import LPG, which is used by many commercial and residential users not connected to the national gas grid and used for cooking purposes. 

General license no. 40, dated July 12, 2021, has been replaced and superseded completely by general license 40A, which expires on July 12, 2023, OFAC of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, announced July 7 in an official statement.

The license doesn’t authorize any payment-in-kind of petroleum or petroleum products or transactions with any entity in which state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, known as PDVSA, owns directly or indirectly a 50% or greater interest, according to the OFAC statement. The license also prohibits transactions with Venezuelan government officials sanctioned by the U.S. government.

The U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s oil sector in early 2019 were intended to incapacitate the OPEC country’s oil sector and potentially lead to a change in the so-called “socialist” government to one favored by Washington. The sanctions have yet to produce a change of government and Venezuela continues to suffer political, economic and humanitarian crises.

This year, Washington has taken some foreign policy steps regarding Venezuela as part of its efforts to entice the government of President Nicolas Maduro back to the negotiating table in Mexico with opposition factions. 

Recently, the U.S. allowed Italy’s Eni SpA and Spain’s Repsol SA to ship their share of Venezuelan oil production to Europe in great part to assist Europe reduce its reliance on Russian energy. However, U.S. producer Chevron Corp. remains hamstrung by Washington’s sanctions.

Editor’s note: This story was updated from a previous version posted at 8:05 a.m. CT on July 8, 2022.

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