Key Points
— The US is considering lifting sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank to allow billions in oil revenue to flow through the financial system, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter
— Roughly $1 billion has already been sent to the BCV from oil sales routed through Qatar and the US, but compliance bottlenecks are blocking payments to contractors — threatening the 40% production increase Washington is counting on
— The move would reconnect Venezuela to the global banking system for the first time since 2019 and is driven partly by the Iran conflict’s reduction of global oil supply, which has pushed US gasoline prices to three-year highs
The potential lifting of US sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank would mark the most significant financial opening toward Caracas since the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January — and is being driven as much by Washington’s own oil supply crisis as by any goodwill toward the Rodríguez government, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Banco Central de Venezuela in 2019 under Trump’s first term, effectively cutting the institution off from the US financial system and deterring international banks from handling any transactions linked to Venezuela. The result was a near-total financial isolation that compounded the country’s economic collapse. Now, seven years later, the same administration is weighing whether to undo its own restriction — not because Venezuela has democratized, but because the US needs its oil.
The Bottleneck Problem
Since Maduro’s capture, the US has taken control of Venezuela’s oil revenue pipeline. Crude sales are routed through an account in Qatar before being transferred to the United States, with approximately $1 billion already forwarded to the BCV. But the money is stuck. Banks conducting compliance reviews on transactions linked to PDVSA are holding up payments to the local companies and contractors working to restart and expand production. Some firms have been forced to halt operations entirely because they cannot get paid.
This directly undermines Trump’s plan to rapidly increase Venezuelan output. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said Venezuela could boost production by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day this year — a 40% increase — but that projection requires functioning payment channels. With the Iran conflict reducing global supply and US gasoline prices at three-year highs, every barrel matters, and the sanctions Washington imposed on Venezuela are now blocking the barrels Washington needs.
What Sanctions Relief Would Mean
Alejandro Grisanti, director of Caracas-based consultancy Ecoanalítica, said removing BCV sanctions would restore channels with international banks, reduce operational friction, and give real depth to Venezuela’s foreign exchange market for the first time in years. The dollar flow is essential: the government has begun selling dollars to the private sector to defend the bolívar, which has been under intense depreciation pressure. Without a steady supply of hard currency, the currency slide risks reigniting the hyperinflation that acting president Delcy Rodríguez this week admitted was caused by the government’s own policies.
The timing is not coincidental. Rodríguez announced Wednesday that a “responsible” minimum wage increase will come on May 1 — the first meaningful adjustment after four years with the formal salary frozen at 130 bolívares, worth less than $0.50 today. That increase requires dollars flowing through the system to avoid the monetary printing that fueled previous hyperinflationary spirals. Sanctions relief on the BCV would provide exactly the channel needed to fund wage increases with oil revenue rather than money creation.
The Dual Track
Washington’s Venezuela policy continues to operate on two parallel tracks: prosecuting Maduro on narcoterrorism charges in a Brooklyn courtroom while simultaneously deepening economic integration with the government that replaced him. The hydrocarbon reform and mining law passed earlier this year opened Venezuela to US capital. Lifting BCV sanctions would remove the last major financial barrier — transforming Venezuela from an isolated economy surviving on workarounds into one reconnected to global dollar flows.
No decision has been made, and the Treasury Department did not respond to Bloomberg‘s request for comment. But the logic is clear: the US sanctioned Venezuela’s central bank to punish Maduro, and now it may unsanction it to pay for the oil that Maduro’s removal was supposed to unlock. The Iran war made that calculus urgent. Whether it happens will depend on whether Trump decides that cheap gasoline before the midterms matters more than maintaining maximum pressure on a country whose strongman is already in a New York jail cell.