Jamaica is holding about US$45 million in PetroCaribe payments owed to Venezuela in a segregated account at the Bank of Jamaica, according to risk disclosures in the Government’s prospectus for its US$1 billion bond issue this month. 

United States sanctions prevent the money from being sent to Caracas. 

The balance, stated as at July 2026, compares with roughly US$2.7 million reported in a September 2023 SEC filing, a more than 16-fold increase. The prospectus supplement for the 6.25 per cent notes due 2037, dated September 10, gives no reason for the change

The wording of the disclosure raises a further question. It says amounts due under PetroCaribe went into the account after US sanctions were imposed and until July 2021. Read literally, deposits stopped five years ago, yet the reported balance has climbed sharply since 2023. Money has also flowed out. Since July 2021, about US$28.3 million has been paid from the account into a court-ordered receivership for creditors holding an arbitration award against Venezuela, under a specific licence from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the filing states. The Gleaner identified the claimant as ConocoPhillips, which obtained a Supreme Court receivership order that year to enforce its award against state oil company PDVSA. 

Dr Wesley Hughes, former head of the PetroCaribe Fund said the balance could reflect compensation for the Petrojam acquisition, while directing detailed questions to the Ministry of Finance and the central bank. 

That acquisition is the subject of a separate claim. 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, and Venezuelan outlets reported in July that it wants about US$250 million for the shares and unpaid dividends. Jamaica has set aside escrow funds based on its own valuation. The PetroCaribe risk factor in the prospectus supplement does not refer to the arbitration.

Jamaica joined PetroCaribe in August 2005, with Venezuela converting part of each oil purchase into a concessionary loan. No crude has arrived under the deal in at least three years, and the Government told investors it expects none. The easing of some US restrictions on Venezuelan oil trade this year has not changed that, because PDVSA and the Venezuelan state remain sanctioned. 

Imported oil meets about 62 per cent of Jamaica’s energy needs and imported natural gas about 26 per cent, the filing shows. 

The bond was priced on September 10 alongside a tender offer for Jamaica’s 2028, 2036 and 2039 notes. Net proceeds of about US$997.6 million are funding the buyback, with roughly US$590 million earmarked for general budgetary purposes. Citigroup and Scotiabank led the sale.