Lapatilla
Chevron Corp. submitted tax returns worth about $300 million to the Venezuelan government last year, raising questions about how much President Nicolás Maduro is benefiting from the U.S. company’s oil production despite sanctions. .
By: Bloomberg
Chevron filed documents claiming its operations in Venezuela owed 8.1 billion bolivars to Seniat, Venezuela’s tax agency, in March 2024 under its registered name in the country, Chevron Global Technology Services Company, according to documents reviewed by BloombergNews. The company is the only authorized payer of these operations. It is not clear if or how Chevron paid those taxes.
“Chevron conducts its business in Venezuela in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,” spokesman Bill Turenne said Thursday by email.
Any form of payment to the Venezuelan government would appear to violate the sanctions exemption Chevron received from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. General License 41 prohibits the US drilling company from paying taxes, royalties or dividends of any kind to Petróleos de Venezuela SA or any other entity controlled by the State. It also prohibits it from selling oil outside the United States or expanding its operations.
In documents presented to Seniat, Chevron’s company Petropiar presented the equivalent in bolivars of some 217 million dollars in income tax in 2023, while its company Petroboscan presented a request for 83 million dollars, using a average rate of 27 bolivars per dollar. The American drilling company has two other companies with PDVSA and owns a minority stake in all four. Venezuela’s hydrocarbon law also requires companies to pay a third of their production in royalties, as well as other taxes.
Chevron’s relationship with Venezuela is likely to come under intense scrutiny from President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to take a harder line against the Maduro regime than Joe Biden’s administration. The outgoing president eased restrictions on Chevron’s oil production in 2022 after Maduro resumed talks with the opposition about holding democratic elections. At the time, the United States was in the midst of inflation that had not been the highest in decades, driven in part by high oil prices.
“Companies like Chevron are contributing billions of dollars to the regime’s coffers, and the regime has not kept any of the promises it made,” secretary of state candidate Marco Rubio said Wednesday at his confirmation hearing at the Senate. “All of that needs to be re-explored.”
You can read the full note at Bloomberg
