Jamaica has built up US$45 million (J$7.2b) in PetroCaribe payments owed to Venezuela, an amount that’s grown more than 16-fold over two years.
The money sits in a segregated account at the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) because United States sanctions bar the Government from paying Caracas, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Following the imposition of US sanctions against Venezuela, and until July 2021, any amounts due from Jamaica under the PetroCaribe Agreement were placed in a segregated account with the BOJ, which as of July 2026, totalled approximately US$45 million,” the Government said in the filing.
The disclosure appears in the risk factors the Government filed with its September sale of US$1 billion in 6.25 per cent notes due 2037. Jamaica used the proceeds to buy back more expensive bonds.
The balance far exceeds the roughly US$2.7 million the Government reported in a September 2023 filing to the SEC. The new filing gives no reason for the increase.
Dr Wesley Hughes, the former head of the PetroCaribe Fund, when contacted referred the newspaper to the Ministry of Finance or BOJ, but added the amount could reflect compensation for the nationalisation of the Petrojam refinery.
The Financial Gleaner also sent queries to the Ministry of Finance for comment. In 2019, the Jamaican Parliament dissolved the fund’s corporate structure and merged its operations and balances directly into the central government’s Consolidated Fund.
Some of the money has already gone to Venezuela’s creditors.
“Since July 2021, following an arbitration award to third-party claimants against Venezuela and as ordered by the Supreme Court of Judicature of Jamaica, Jamaica has made payments owed under the PetroCaribe Agreement totalling approximately US$28.3 million from the segregated account into a receivership benefitting such claimants,” the filing said. It added that the payments comply with “a relevant specific OFAC license” from the US Treasury.
In July 2021, ConocoPhillips won a Supreme Court order for a receivership over Venezuelan assets in Jamaica, as part of its efforts to enforce an arbitration award against Venezuela’s state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.
Jamaica joined PetroCaribe in August 2005. Under the agreement, Venezuela converted part of the value of Jamaica’s oil purchases into a concessionary loan. The oil has stopped flowing. “Jamaica is not currently receiving any crude oil imports under the PetroCaribe Agreement, nor has it received such imports in the past three years nor does it currently expect to receive any oil from Venezuela,” the filing said.
That outlook holds even after Washington’s shift on Venezuela this year. After US forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January, the US Treasury issued general licences allowing some oil trade and investment. PDVSA and the Venezuelan government, however, remain blocked under US sanctions.
The account is not Jamaica’s only unresolved obligation to Venezuela. In 2019, the Government compulsorily acquired PDVSA’s 49 per cent stake in the Petrojam refinery. PDV Caribe, a PDVSA unit, has taken the dispute to arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce. In July, Venezuelan outlets reported that PDV Caribe was seeking about US$250 million, including the value of the shares and unpaid dividends.
Jamaica has set aside money in escrow to cover compensation for the shares, based on its own valuation of them.
Oil makes up about 62 per cent of Jamaica’s energy supply, according to the filing.
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