VENEECONOMISTEconomic intelligence · Venezuela

Analysis Type B — Trend · JUNE 11, 2026

Venezuela's Mining Opening: OFAC Reopens Gold to Western Trade — With the Cash in the U.S. Treasury

OFAC's June 10 amendment wave rewrote seven Venezuela licenses. The two mining ones —GL 51B and 54A— authorize trading and servicing Venezuelan gold via CVG Minerven, but route payment through the U.S. Treasury, bar new joint ventures and exclude China.

Published June 11, 2026

On June 10, 2026, OFAC replaced seven Venezuela general licenses in a single move. Two of them —GL 51B and GL 54A— are the mining piece: they let an established U.S. entity trade Venezuelan minerals, gold included, and supply the entire mining chain through state miner CVG Minerven. But the cash is routed into a U.S. Treasury account, forming new joint ventures is barred, and China is excluded. The constraint is no longer the license; it is the contract architecture and the traceability of the payment.

OFAC did not issue a standalone license: it rewrote seven at once —oil trade (46C), diluents (47A), goods and services to the energy sector (48B), operations of the Annex oil companies (50B), PdVSA transactions (52A), and the two mining licenses (51B and 54A)— and published two frequently asked questions, 1259 and 1260. All share the same template, which reveals a deliberate decision: to standardize the form in which doing business in Venezuela is authorized, not merely what is authorized.

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VENE · ECONOMIST Intelligence Unit · Informational analysis. Does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice. Vene Economist is not a credit rating agency; the "VE Verdict" is a proprietary editorial indicator, not a credit rating. Always verify against the primary source before making decisions.

Topics

OFAC U.S. Department of the Treasury

FURTHER READING

04

ANÁLISIS · ENERGÍA · GAS TRANSFRONTERIZO

Dragon field: Venezuela's gas for Shell and Trinidad waits on three keys

Venezuela licensed Dragon to Shell and NGC in 2023 with a 20% royalty and a floor of 45% of gross revenue. Under OFAC's General License 50C, those payments would go to the Treasury fund whose disbursement the State Department decides, and Trinidad and Tobago admits it has no fiscal framework for imported gas. Three scenarios and their signals.

VE PULSE · 29-SEP-2026

Venezuelan methanol enters an OFAC license when it was already almost a quarter of US imports

Metor, the Jose plant in which the state holds 37.5%, kept selling in the United States while sanctions were in force. Since Monday the license names the product and lets the state partner in, with its payment routed to the Treasury account.

SECTOR BRIEF · VE-ENERGY-UPSTREAM

Production crosses 1 million bpd and majors sign: upstream closes Q1 with complete framework and binding power ceiling

VE-ENERGY-UPSTREAM April 2026 brief. Hydrocarbons reform passed (Jan 29), OFAC GL 52 (Mar 18), formal returns from Eni, Repsol and Chevron in April. Production 1.095M bpd, exports >1M for the first time in 6 months. India overtakes China as top buyer at 343K bpd. Revenues channeled to U.S. Treasury custody via EO 14373. The binding ceiling remains electrical (covered in VE-ENERGY-DOMESTICO).

GL 48D — Supply of Goods and Services to Venezuela

Authorizes the supply from the U.S. or by a U.S. person of goods, technology, software or services for oil, gas and petrochemical exploration, development and production —including maintenance and repair of equipment—, and for electricity generation, transmission, storage and distribution in Venezuela. As of September 28, 2026, the petrochemical annex lists methanol. The formation of new joint ventures remains outside the license. Supersedes GL 48C.