WILLEMSTAD – State-owned 2BAYS, formerly Refineria di Kòrsou (RdK), and subsidiary Curaçao Refinery Utilities (CRU) have been seeking renewed and expanded authorization from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to deal with assets and outstanding claims involving Venezuela’s state oil company PdVSA. Despite contacts regarding the application during 2025 and 2026, a new license had not yet been issued when the companies’ latest financial statements were prepared.
The information is contained in the 2024 and 2025 financial statements submitted by the Curaçao government to Parliament. The documents provide unusually detailed insight into how U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have affected the operations and financial interests of 2BAYS and CRU.
The United States imposed sanctions on PdVSA in January 2019, restricting transactions involving the Venezuelan state oil company unless specifically authorized by OFAC, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
According to the financial statements, RdK and CRU subsequently obtained several specific OFAC licenses. These allowed U.S. persons and companies, under certain conditions, to participate in transactions necessary to temporarily continue and later wind down activities connected to the Curaçao refinery and oil terminal.
The authorizations initially concerned PdVSA assets that were physically present in Curaçao at the beginning of 2020. According to 2BAYS, almost all of those assets have since been monetized.
That has created a different challenge for the Curaçao company.
2BAYS still has outstanding claims against PdVSA and wants U.S. authorization expanded so that it can potentially pursue PdVSA assets located outside Curaçao.
The company therefore began a procedure in 2024 to renew its expired OFAC license while substantially broadening its scope.
The financial statements indicate that there were several contacts concerning the application during 2025 and 2026. However, no new license had been granted by the time the accounts were prepared.
2BAYS states that changes in U.S. geopolitical policy and developments in Venezuela from January 3, 2026 may have contributed to delays in processing the request. The company expected a response from OFAC during the second half of 2026.
The issue is financially significant because authorization could affect 2BAYS’ ability to recover money owed in connection with PdVSA.
The financial statements do not specify the value of the PdVSA claims that 2BAYS hopes to recover through an expanded license, nor do they identify which assets outside Curaçao could potentially be targeted.
The documents are also noteworthy in light of the continuing controversy surrounding an alleged US$200,000 payment for activities in the United States.
2BAYS and CRU have previously denied that company funds were used for an American influence campaign. The newly released accounts establish that the companies did have a concrete business interest in the United States during the period in question: securing renewal and significant expansion of their OFAC authorization.
However, the financial statements provide no evidence confirming that the alleged US$200,000 payment was made.
They do not identify the individuals or organizations involved in the OFAC contacts, whether external consultants or other representatives were retained, or how much was spent specifically on the licensing process.
2BAYS recorded more than XCG 2 million in general consultancy and legal expenses in 2025, compared with more than XCG 3.3 million in 2024. Individual suppliers and assignments are not identified. CRU’s separate expenditures are also not sufficiently detailed to determine whether a US$200,000 payment was made.
The annual accounts therefore neither confirm nor definitively rule out the alleged payment. Establishing that would require underlying documentation such as contracts, invoices, bank transactions and CRU’s detailed general ledger.
What the financial statements do establish is that U.S. sanctions policy is not a distant geopolitical issue for Curaçao. It has had direct consequences for 2BAYS’ ability to manage and recover value from its longstanding financial relationship with PdVSA.