• Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami was slapped with United States sanctions in 2017.
• Chevron will celebrate its 100th anniversary in Venezuela in April 2023.
• Any revenues made will be used to pay off Chevron’s debt rather than the Maduro government.

The Venezuelan government and American oil company Chevron signed a contract in Caracas on Friday to resume operations there, according to the nation’s state broadcaster.

“This contract aims to continue with the productive and development activities in this energy sector, framed within our Constitution and the Venezuelan laws that govern oil activity in the country,” said Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami, who was slapped with United States sanctions in 2017.

Along with representatives from Chevron and PDVSA, the nation’s state-owned oil and gas firm, he was present for the signing ceremony.

El Aissami announced during the occasion that Chevron would celebrate its 100th anniversary in Venezuela in April 2023.

Following news that the Venezuelan government and the opposition group had reached an agreement on humanitarian relief and would continue talks for a resolution to the country’s protracted economic and political crisis, the United States last week granted Chevron limited authorization to resume pumping oil from Venezuela.

According to US officials speaking to media in May, the US has been seeking for ways to enable Venezuela to start producing more oil and selling it on the global market, so lessening the world’s reliance on Russian energy.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department last week awarded Venezuela a six-month license, which the US can revoke at any time. A top official further stated that any revenues made will be used to pay off Chevron’s debt rather than the Maduro government.

According to a news release from 2017, OFAC said that El Aissami had a “major role in international narcotics trafficking.”

He “facilitated narcotics shipments from Venezuela, including control over aircraft that depart from a Venezuelan air base, (and) narcotics shipments of over 1,000 kilograms from Venezuela on multiple occasions, including those with the final destinations of Mexico and the United States,” according to the Treasury Department.

The agency further claimed that El Aissami protected a Colombian drug lord and was connected to organizing narcotics shipments to the deadly Mexican criminal organization Los Zetas.

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