Maurel & Prom ships 1M Venezuelan barrels under US waiver
Paris-based Maurel & Prom is exporting its second cargo of Venezuelan crude, a tangible sign that Washington is selectively reopening the country's oil sector following the removal of Nicolás Maduro.
Maurel & Prom is loading roughly 1 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude at the end of July, marking its second export from the country in two months. The French explorer lifted 500,000 barrels in June and is now moving a larger cargo from the TAECJAA terminal. The final destination remains undisclosed, though the crude profile points to specialized refineries across the Atlantic.
These shipments are only possible because of a specific U.S. Treasury exemption. The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 50A on February 18, 2026, explicitly permitting Maurel & Prom to conduct oil operations and financial transactions with PDVSA. Without this carve-out, such dealings would trigger severe American secondary sanctions.
The license reflects a major geopolitical recalibration following years of strict isolation. U.S. forces detained and removed President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, prompting Washington to abandon the near-total embargo on Venezuelan oil exports that had been in place since 2019. That earlier easing in 2023 had been tied to democratic progress, but Maduro's ouster rendered those conditions obsolete.
The crude being exported is Merey 16, a dense grade that requires specialized refining capacity typically found in Europe or the U.S. Gulf Coast. Maurel & Prom is extracting this oil through its 80%-owned subsidiary M&P Iberoamerica, which holds a 40% working interest in the mature Urdaneta Oeste field. Located in western Venezuela, the asset produces 22,500 barrels per day gross, translating to roughly 9,000 barrels per day net for the French company.
A gated reopening
Maurel & Prom is not acting alone. Spanish major Repsol and Italian firm ENI have also secured or sought similar licenses, forming a small, exclusive group of European operators permitted to re-engage with Caracas.
For investors, the shipments confirm that Venezuela’s massive oil reserves—the largest in the world—are slowly returning to global markets after years of paralysis. However, the strictly conditional nature of GL 50A demonstrates that Washington is maintaining tight control over the sector's normalization. Broad foreign investment in Venezuela remains highly restricted and politically sensitive, with access limited to a handful of pre-approved European energy firms.
