Emergency Contact Venezuela — U.S. sanctions imposed on PdVSA Home Latest updates News Venezuela — U.S. sanctions imposed on PdVSA 20 Mar 2019 Download Sign up for alerts What has happened regarding PdVSA? On 28 January 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) added Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (“PdVSA”) to the U.S. Specially Designated National List (SDN List) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850 . A copy of the OFAC press release can be found here . What is the effect of the designation of PdVSA on U.S. persons? All property and interests in property of PdVSA subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with PdVSA. All trades with a U.S. nexus or touchpoint are impacted, for example transactions involving the U.S. financial system. OFAC has issued eight general licenses allowing for continued transactions with PdVSA and its subsidiaries, for limited periods of time. The following licenses are of particular interest: General License 7 – “ Authorising Certain Activities with PDV Holding, Inc. and CITGO Holding, Inc.” General License 7 authorises (a) until July 26, 2019, certain transactions involving PDVH, CITGO Holding Inc. or their subsidiaries; (b) until April 27, 2019, PDVH, CITGO Holding Inc. and their subsidiaries to engage in certain transactions ordinarily incident to the purchase and importation of petroleum and petroleum products from PdVSA. General License 8 - “Authorising Transactions Involving Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) Prohibited by Executive Order 13850 for Certain Entities Operating in Venezuela”. General License 8 authorises, until July 27, 2019, all transactions incident to the operations in Venezuela involving PdVSA or its subsidiaries involving: Chevron Corporation, Halliburton, Schlumberger Limited, Baker Hughes, and Weatherford International. The export of diluents to Venezue