US sanctions and the future of doing business in Venezuela

On January 28, 2019, in the latest effort to ratchet up pressure on the Maduro regime, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), designated Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (“PdVSA”) as a Specially Designated National pursuant to Executive Order 13850.

Effective immediately, all property and interests in property of PdVSA subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are precluded from engaging in any unlicensed transactions relating to PdVSA.

Based on this recent development, all companies doing upstream, midstream and downstream business in Venezuela are questioning what do in the short term and what to expect in the midterm.

Topics will include:

• Oil and gas industry in Venezuela – general overview and current contractual situation with foreign companies
• Evolution of the US sanctions on Venezuela, including the PdVSA designation
• Economic sanctions and international commercial arbitration / investment treaty arbitration
• SEC and other regulatory issues
• What steps should companies be taking?

Continuing education information

Application has been made for Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit with the State Bar of Texas Committee on MCLE in the amount of 2.0 hours