Trump announces 25% tariff on nations buying Venezuelan oil and gas

Venezuelan crude has made up less than 1 per cent of all crude imports for India in FY25

United States President Donald Trump on Monday announced that a 25 per cent overall tariff will be imposed on any country that purchases oil and gas from Venezuela beginning April 2. The “secondary tariffs” on Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime are a response to the country “deceitfully sending tens of thousands of criminals, murderers and gang members”, the President said.

 

“Any country that purchases oil and/or gas from Venezuela will be forced to pay a tariff of 25 per cent to the United States on any trade they do with our country,” Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social.

 

 

The move is expected to cut off India’s access to Venezuelan crude and will impact India’s crude inflows on a minimal basis, given that the country has accounted for only 0.92 per cent of all inbound crude shipments by value, according to Commerce Department figures. Venezuelan crude made up $1.01 billion of the $109.3 billion of crude imported in the first nine months of FY25.

 

However, the country became the 12th largest source of crude in this period, up from the 16th largest in FY24 when it sent $802 million worth of crude.

 

Currently, only Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) officially imports from Venezuela. Last year in July, RIL had secured official clearance from US authorities to import oil from the South American country. But while public sector refiners wait for a similar sanctions waiver from the United States to be allowed to buy crude from Venezuela, they had begun making “second-order transactions” to source it from companies that already have the waiver, sources at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had said in September last year.

 

While the government has so far abstained from directly purchasing crude oil from a sanctions-hit country, purchase of cargoes from a third entity is allowed. Sporadic oil imports from the country first began in December 2023, after a long pause. In 2024, Venezuelan crude reached India in most months.

 

The US had imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector back in 2018, after the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro returned to power. These sanctions had been eased in October 2023, but were re-imposed in April last year. However, the US State Department made an exception for US companies to operate in Venezuela.

 

On Monday, Trump stressed that the country has been very hostile to the United States and the freedoms it espouses. “Among the gangs they sent to the United States is Tren de Aragua, which has been given the designation of Foreign Terrorist Organization. We are in the process of returning them to Venezuela — it is a big task,” he said on Truth Social.