Venezuela will deliver a license to ENI and Repsol in June to export liquefied natural gas

Both Repsol and ENI have a license —issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury— that gives them authorization to export products to Europe as a mechanism to collect the debt that PDVSA maintains with both companies, as long as they do not generate dividends that benefit the state company

Venezuela plans to issue a license next month to companies Eni and Repsol SA, from Italy and Spain respectively, to export natural gas, asserted in a interview to Bloomberg Pedro Tellechea, Minister of Petroleum and President of PDVSA.

On May 5, the country signed an agreement with both European companies that allows the export of natural gas liquids, or condensates, to other markets.

“In the next few days we will finish negotiating the LNG (liquefied natural gas) export license,” Tellechea told Bloomberg. “Eni and Repsol are interested in growing in the gas area in Venezuela. They had been waiting for seven years for the natural gas liquids export permit, which we have just granted.”

Both Repsol and ENI have a license —issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury— that gives them authorization to export products to Europe as a mechanism to collect the debt that PDVSA maintains with both companies, as long as they do not generate dividends that benefit the state company.

The start date of exports, explained the minister, “will depend on the speed of the investment that will be disbursed.”

The two European companies also want to resume the Cardón IV project “at full capacity,” which is 1.3 million cubic feet, Tellechea said. It currently pumps 580 million cubic feet of natural gas to meet Venezuela’s domestic and industrial demand.

Press contacts for Repsol and Eni did not respond to a request for comment.