Failure to renew a current license does not preclude the United States from issuing a new, more restrictive license to replace it.

““We are going to move forward with a license without a license, we are not a gringo colony, we are not your colony, and Venezuela is going to continue its economic march and no one is going to stop us, gentlemen of the gringos,” Maduro said at a press conference. his television program.

The president added that Venezuela’s chief negotiator and deputy, Jorge Rodriguez, attended a video conference “with them” on the issue on Monday, without providing details of the call.

Venezuela’s oil exports rose in March to their highest level since early 2020 as customers rushed to complete purchases ahead of the expected expiration of a U.S. license, Reuters reported this month.

Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA said it is prepared for any scenario, including the return of full oil sanctions.

For its part, the U.S. Treasury Department’s OFAC separately extended until August 13 the general license for PDVSA’s 8.5% bonds, which protect Venezuelan refiner Citgo Petroleum from creditors.

US President Joe Biden’s advisers are still discussing a range of options before the license, issued in October, expires, according to people familiar with the situation.

Among the measures being considered is allowing Venezuela to continue selling its crude oil on world markets, but reimposing a ban on the use of U.S. dollars in such transactions, which would require Venezuela to switch to other currencies and expand barter agreements and swaps. , according to a person briefed on the discussions.

This option could expand the role of Venezuela’s banking sector in oil sales, but would again prevent Venezuela from negotiating oil deals with the world’s main reserve currency.

U.S. officials have no plans to revoke Chevron’s 2022 permit to sell oil to the U.S. through its joint ventures in Venezuela, U.S. sources said.

Current discussions in the US are raising concerns about whether reimposing sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector could lead to higher global oil prices and more Venezuelan migrants heading to the US-Mexico border as Biden campaigns for re-election in the November election.

The Biden administration is determined to do something to punish Maduro’s government and is weighing how far to go in reversing sanctions relief, although it is not expected to allow a full return to the “maximum pressure” policies of the former president’s era. Donald Trump.

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In October, the United States partially eased sanctions in response to an electoral agreement reached in Barbados between Maduro’s government and the opposition. The agreement provided for the right of the opposition to choose its own presidential candidate.

The Venezuelan opposition is locked in internal negotiations over how to nominate a candidate in the July 28 elections and who that candidate might be.

Maria Corina Machado, who overwhelmingly won the opposition primary in October, cannot run because she is barred from holding public office – a decision she considers illegal. Machado named Corina Joris as his successor, but the 80-year-old academic also failed to register her candidacy.

Two opposition candidates managed to register, and possible replacements may be named by April 20. (Reuters).