ONGC now holds the permit it was missing to operate in Venezuela; what it still lacks is the assigned field, and that is not signed in Washington.
- ENERGÍA
ONGC Videsh obtains the U.S. license to operate its oil and gas projects in Venezuela
5-ago, llamada de resultados · 40% en San Cristóbal · 11% en Petrocarabobo · meta de 30.000 bpd en el primer año · unos US$600 millones en dividendos retenidos
affects anyone negotiating the same fields who does not yet hold a signed permit
- MINERÍA
Six organizations tell the IACHR that U.S. mining licenses do not require proving the gold's origin
5-ago, 196º período de sesiones · licencias 51B y 54A del 10 de junio · 9,5 toneladas de oro en 2025 · meta oficial de más de 12 en 2026
affects anyone buying, financing or shipping Venezuelan minerals and answering for their chain of custody
- LOGÍSTICA
La Guaira Customs closes the earthquake contingency and cargo enters directly through the port again
circular SNAT/INA/GAP/LGU/DO/2026/030826-9821 · más de 40 días de desvío desde el 24 de junio · carga aérea reactivada el 5-ago · pista 10L/28R cerrada hasta el 3 de noviembre
affects the importer who paid demurrage and inland haulage from alternate ports
Washington's permit has stopped being the bottleneck, and that changes where to look. An OFAC license certifies whom it is legal to deal with — CVG Minerven, PDVSA, the joint venture — and certifies nothing about the asset or the goods. In gold that gap shows more plainly than in crude: the paper authorizes the sale but does not require proving which mine the metal came from, and that proof decides whether a lot enters the formal circuit or stays in the gray. What would test this reading is concrete: a renewal of the mineral licenses that adds an origin condition, the previous cycle of which dates to June 10. Until then, counting permits measures the part of the process that is already settled.
The official exchange rate ended July at Bs 746.63 per dollar, 19.84% above the June close. It kept climbing through the first week of August: Bs 748.79 on Monday the 3rd and Bs 755.90 for Thursday the 6th value date.
A near-20% monthly jump in the official rate is not a currency-market data point: it is the price at which wages are converted, taxes are computed and regulated fees are adjusted. For anyone billing in hard currency and paying costs in bolívars, margin improves for a few weeks. For anyone selling in bolívars with imported restocking, replacement cost runs ahead of revenue. And for the treasury, every point of depreciation enlarges the same oil take in bolívars without a single extra dollar coming in. July's CPI, published mid-August, will say how much of that has already reached prices.
ONGC's chief financial officer confirmed on August 5 that its international arm received the U.S. license to operate oil and gas projects in Venezuela.
Anupam Agarwal, chief financial officer of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, confirmed on August 5, during the first-quarter earnings call for fiscal 2026-27, that ONGC Videsh received a license from the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to operate oil and gas projects in Venezuela. The arm holds 40% of the San Cristóbal field, through the Petrolera Indovenezolana joint venture, and 11% of Petrocarabobo. Dividends it has been unable to repatriate come to some 600 million dollars.
ONGC Videsh (ONGC) ↗5-ago, llamada de resultados del 1T · 40% en San Cristóbal · 11% en Petrocarabobo · de 12.000-15.000 a 30.000 bpd en el primer año · unos US$600M en dividendos retenidosThe obstacle was not contractual but sanctions risk: without a license, taking over the operation of a field exposes the operator and the banks financing it. With the permit, the decision becomes industrial and moves to PDVSA, which is the party that assigns operatorship. Taking the asset from 12,000-15,000 barrels a day to 30,000 requires capital and rigs, not authorization. Washington's paper enables; it does not award.
ONGC Videsh and the services it hires to restart a mature field: drilling, artificial lift and water handling.
Anyone expecting the license alone to free the dividends: it enables operating, it does not order repatriation of the US$600 million held back.
INDICADORwhether ONGC Videsh and PDVSA sign the agreement assigning it operatorship of San Cristóbal, and whether the company states an investment figure · resto de 2026; el siguiente hito público es la llamada de resultados del segundo trimestre, en noviembre
At an Inter-American Commission hearing on August 5, six organizations argued that the U.S. licenses that reopened trade in Venezuelan gold do not require proof of the mineral's origin.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held a public hearing on August 5, in its 196th period of sessions in Washington, on the impacts of mining in Venezuela, with the Venezuelan state among those summoned. Taking part were SOS Orinoco, Provea, WOLA, the Due Process of Law Foundation, the International Commission of Jurists and the Human Rights Center of Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. The organizations argued that U.S. mineral licenses carry no traceability requirements and do not exclude areas under armed-group control.
Provea, SOS Orinoco, WOLA, DPLF, CIJ y Centro de DDHH de la UCAB ↗5-ago · 196º período de sesiones de la CIDH · seis organizaciones y el Estado venezolano · licencias 51B y 54A del 10-jun · 9,5 toneladas de oro en 2025 · meta oficial de más de 12 en 2026What the license does not define is how the metal's mine of origin is evidenced. It settles whom one may deal with — CVG Minerven and entities where it holds half or more — and channels payments through the U.S. Treasury. In March the U.S. interior secretary took more than two dozen mining companies to Caracas and said he had received security assurances: they came from a meeting, not from an instrument. And the gap widens with volume: the state projects going from 9.5 tonnes to more than 12 this year.
The buyer with its own origin auditing, taking the mineral at a discount for a risk others will not carry.
The producer that does document its origin and competes against unaccredited metal, and the bank financing the cargo.
INDICADORwhether OFAC adds traceability requirements or area exclusions when it renews the mining licenses, and whether the IACHR issues recommendations on the case · resto de 2026; las licencias mineras se renovaron por última vez el 10 de junio
La Guaira's Main Customs Office declared the earthquake contingency over: cargo bound for the port may dock and unload there directly, with no prior diversion.
A circular from La Guaira's Main Customs Office authorizes all commercial cargo bound for the International Port of La Guaira to dock and unload directly at those facilities. That closes the precautionary diversion activated after the double earthquake of June 24, which ran for more than forty days and reached shipping lines, maritime agencies and customs brokers. On that same August 5, Maiquetía airport restarted cargo aviation, inbound and outbound.
Aduana Principal de La Guaira (SENIAT) — vía El Universal ↗circular SNAT/INA/GAP/LGU/DO/2026/030826-9821 · desvío de más de 40 días desde el 24-jun · carga aérea reactivada el 5-ago · pista 10L/28R cerrada hasta el 3-nov · operan la 10R/28L y la 09/27The diversion forced unloading at alternate ports and hauling goods inland to the center of the country: extra transit days, double handling and demurrage. Lifting it restores the original route to the main entry point. What remains is not a customs restriction but a runway one: two notices to airmen keep 10L/28R and taxiways A through F closed until November 3, while runways 10R/28L and 09/27 stay active. Cargo normalizes ahead of the terminal's capacity.
The container importer and the customs broker who had been paying demurrage and inland haulage from alternate ports.
The alternate port and the trucking operator that captured that traffic for forty days.
INDICADORwhether clearance times at La Guaira return to pre-June 24 levels, and how many slots Maiquetía operates while 10L/28R stays closed · agosto para el despacho portuario; el hito de pista está fechado el 3 de noviembre