OFAC's September 28 Venezuela oil licenses open trade, not a free payment route

The United States issued three amended licenses for specified Venezuelan oil and petrochemical business on September 28, but it did not give every buyer a free choice of counterparty, insurer or payment channel. The Office of Foreign Assets Control's amended General Licenses 46E and 48D permit defined trade and supply work, subject to contract, payment and counterparty conditions; General License 49B permits negotiation of new investments only when performance is expressly contingent on separate OFAC authorization. These are permissions under the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations, not evidence that a shipment has moved or a project has been financed. [1][2][3][4]

The permissions have different starting points

OFAC's September 28 notice lists three replacements: GL 46E supersedes 46D, GL 48D supersedes 48C, and GL 49B supersedes 49A. The text, rather than the license number alone, matters. Each is an exception for defined transactions otherwise prohibited by 31 CFR part 591; none says that the broader sanctions regime has ended. Each also says other federal requirements, including those administered by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, still apply. [1][2][3][4]

GL 46E is the trade license. Paragraph (a) authorizes transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to lifting, exporting, reexporting, selling, reselling, supplying, storing, marketing, buying, delivering or transporting Venezuelan-origin oil, including refining it, or Venezuelan-origin petrochemical products for U.S. importation, by an established U.S. entity. OFAC defines that entity as one organized under U.S. law on or before January 29, 2025. Its note expressly includes vessel chartering, marine insurance, protection and indemnity (P&I) coverage, and port and terminal arrangements, including services involving Venezuelan government port authorities. Commercially reasonable swaps of crude, diluents or refined products are included. [2, paragraph (a), notes 1-3]

That insurance permission has boundaries. The general license does not authorize a transaction involving a blocked vessel, and paragraph (b) excludes transactions involving people located in or organized under the laws of Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba, and specified owned, controlled or joint-venture entities. It separately excludes an entity located in or organized under the laws of Venezuela or the United States that is owned, controlled or in a joint venture with a person located in or organized under Chinese law. The wording is not a blanket claim about the nationality of every insurer or cargo owner; eligibility turns on the actual parties and the license's definitions. [2, paragraph (b)(2)-(5)]

The license also contains a reporting path for oil that goes elsewhere. A person exporting, reselling or otherwise supplying Venezuelan-origin oil to a country other than the United States under GL 46E must identify the parties, quantities, values, ultimate destination, dates and any payments to the Venezuelan government in a report to the State and Energy departments. That report is due 10 days after the first such transaction and every 90 days afterward while those transactions continue. The third-country reporting rule does not turn a transaction outside the license's other conditions into an authorized one. [2, paragraphs (c)-(d)]

GL 48D starts at the other end of the chain. It covers transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to goods, technology, software or services supplied from the United States or by a U.S. person for Venezuelan oil, gas and petrochemical exploration, development or production, or electricity generation, transmission, storage or distribution. Its note includes payment processing, shipping, marine insurance, P&I and port services. Maintenance and repair of relevant sector equipment are within the stated authorization. A company supplying a part and a company insuring its shipment face a different textual test from an established U.S. entity buying Venezuelan-origin oil under GL 46E. [3, paragraph (a), note 1; 2, paragraph (a), note 1]

The exclusions narrow that supply lane. GL 48D does not authorize the formation of new joint ventures or other entities in Venezuela for those sector activities, or the direct or indirect export or reexport of diluents to Venezuela. It also excludes blocked vessels and transactions involving persons located in or organized under Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Cuban or Chinese law, as well as specified owned, controlled or joint-venture entities. Its reporting duty applies to anyone exporting, reselling or supplying the covered goods, technology, software or services under the license. Reports to State and Energy are due 10 days after the first transaction and every 90 days while transactions continue. [3, paragraphs (b)-(d)]

All three licenses explicitly include fertilizer products and fertilizer precursor chemicals within their definition of petrochemical products. Their annexes list examples with customs codes, including ammonia, urea and methanol. A listed chemical is not an unconditional permit: the relevant transaction still has to fit the license's operative paragraph and exclusions. [2, note 3 and annex; 3, note 3 and annex; 4, note 3 and annex]

Follow the payment, not just the cargo

Both operative trade licenses require contracts with the Venezuelan government, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), or entities at least 50% owned by PdVSA to put dispute-resolution proceedings in the United States, United Kingdom, France or Singapore. Monetary payments to a blocked person, other than payments for local taxes, permits or fees, must go to the Foreign Government Deposit Funds specified in Executive Order 14373 or another account instructed by Treasury. This is a condition on a defined class of payments, not a statement that every invoice in the sector is paid to a U.S. government account. [2, paragraph (a)(1)-(2); 3, paragraph (a)(1)-(2)]

The January 9 executive order defines those funds as money paid to or held by the U.S. government in designated Treasury accounts or funds on behalf of Venezuela or its agencies or instrumentalities, derived from natural-resource sales or diluent sales to the Venezuelan government and its entities. It describes the money as Venezuelan government property held in U.S. custody and restricts transfers or withdrawals except as separately provided. The destination rule in the September licenses therefore determines where specified blocked-person payments are routed; it does not establish the amount deposited, the identity of any actual payer, or when the Venezuelan government can spend a particular receipt. [5, sections 2-5; 2, paragraph (a)(2); 3, paragraph (a)(2)]

Paragraph (b)(1) of each trade license bars payment terms that are not commercially reasonable, involve debt swaps or payments in gold, or are denominated in digital currency, digital coin or digital tokens issued by, for or on behalf of the Venezuelan government, including the petro. The prohibited digital-currency category is government-issued or government-backed as specified in the text, not every digital asset. GL 46E's express allowance for commercially reasonable physical-product swaps is distinct from its exclusion of debt swaps. The licensing text supplies no basis to allege that any identified trader has used a prohibited rail. [2, paragraph (a), note 2, and paragraph (b)(1); 3, paragraph (b)(1)]

Consider two hypothetical contracts, not reported transactions. If an established U.S. buyer purchases a covered cargo under GL 46E, it can arrange shipping and marine P&I within that license only after checking the vessel and parties against its exclusions, writing any covered state-counterparty dispute clause and routing a covered blocked-person monetary payment to the prescribed destination. If a U.S. supplier proposes to send diluent to Venezuela, GL 48D's express diluent exclusion stops that proposal from relying on GL 48D even though the same license covers other sector supplies. Each inference follows the license text, and neither establishes that either contract exists. [2, paragraphs (a)-(b); 3, paragraphs (a)-(b)]

GL 49B is a separate negotiating lane. It authorizes negotiation of and entry into contingent contracts for new Venezuelan oil, gas, petrochemical and electricity investment, including possible expansion and new joint ventures. Its examples include executory contracts, agreements in principle, bids and binding memoranda of understanding, along with preparatory due diligence. The condition is explicit: performance of any such contract must be expressly contingent upon separate OFAC authorization. A signed memorandum is therefore not the same as permission to build or operate a new project under GL 49B. [4, paragraph (a), notes 1-2]

GL 49B excludes transactions involving a person located in Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba or China, or an entity owned or controlled by or in a joint venture with such a person. It also excludes unblocking property and transactions involving blocked vessels. Its counterparty wording differs from 46E's and 48D's; the exclusions should not be collapsed into a single rule. In particular, the payment-routing and settlement prohibitions quoted above are text of 46E and 48D, not a general assertion that paragraph (b) of 49B repeats them. Any later contract performance has to be evaluated under its own separate authorization and applicable law. [4, paragraphs (a)-(b); 2, paragraph (b); 3, paragraph (b)]

Why the boundary matters

The bullish reading is a narrower legal bottleneck for specified commerce: 46E expressly covers marine cover and third-country oil sales under reporting conditions, while 48D gives U.S. suppliers room to maintain covered energy and electricity operations. The limiting reading is equally concrete. Blocked-vessel and party exclusions survive, covered payments have a prescribed destination, diluent exports and new operating joint ventures are outside 48D, and 49B's investment work stops before performance unless OFAC separately authorizes it. The licenses establish legal permissions, not production volumes, insured capacity, investment commitments or price effects. [2, paragraphs (a)-(d); 3, paragraphs (a)-(d); 4, paragraphs (a)-(b)]

The next evidence would be a separately issued OFAC authorization permitting performance under 49B, an amendment to these licenses, or an official report that quantifies flows under the new terms. Until then, the most defensible market conclusion is about transaction design: the route through contracts, insurers, eligible vessels and Treasury-directed payment accounts can determine whether a seemingly permitted shipment or supply arrangement fits the license. No named private party is accused of breaching it. [2][3][4]

For the broader sanctions arc, see OFAC Delays PDVSA Bond Trading to Nov. 5; Russia-Linked Names Quietly Cut From SDN, Treasury Opens Venezuela's Telecom Market to US Firms Even as It Keeps Adding Names to the Sanctions List, and Treasury Flips the Default Setting on Iran Sanctions Exceptions. For how these licenses move crude markets, follow our oil coverage.

Sources and methodology

[1] OFAC, "Issuance of Amended Venezuela General Licenses," September 28, 2026. Archived: `s3://marketintellabs-knowledge-production/investigations/venezuela-ofac-oil-licenses-2026-09-28/sources/action.html`.

[2] OFAC, Venezuela General License 46E, September 28, 2026. Archived PDF: `s3://marketintellabs-knowledge-production/investigations/venezuela-ofac-oil-licenses-2026-09-28/sources/gl46e.pdf`.

[3] OFAC, Venezuela General License 48D, September 28, 2026. Archived PDF: `s3://marketintellabs-knowledge-production/investigations/venezuela-ofac-oil-licenses-2026-09-28/sources/gl48d.pdf`.

[4] OFAC, Venezuela General License 49B, September 28, 2026. Archived PDF: `s3://marketintellabs-knowledge-production/investigations/venezuela-ofac-oil-licenses-2026-09-28/sources/gl49b.pdf`.

[5] Executive Order 14373, Federal Register, 91 FR 2045, January 15, 2026, sections 2-5. Archived PDF: `s3://marketintellabs-knowledge-production/investigations/venezuela-ofac-oil-licenses-2026-09-28/sources/eo14373.pdf`.

Method: compared the operative paragraphs, notes and exclusions of three licenses against OFAC's issuance notice and the text of the cited executive order. Hypotheticals are labeled; no shipment, revenue, insurer participation or private-party conduct was independently verified. This article describes U.S. public rules, not legal advice for a proposed transaction.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.