On January 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.; effective immediately PdVSA is on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List and all of its assets within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked.
Simultaneously, OFAC issued a number of general licenses intended to mitigate the impact of this designation outside of Venezuela by providing limited authorization for certain transactions and activities related to PdVSA and its subsidiaries. As a result: