(Reuters) – The Trump administration on Thursday eased some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry as the country seeks to expand production after the U.S. military ousted President Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a general permit authorizing transactions “normally incidental to and necessary for the extraction, export, reexport, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, and transportation (including refining of crude oil) of Venezuelan crude oil by established U.S. entities” involving the Venezuelan government and state oil company PDVSA.
The decision to issue general licenses marks a shift from previous plans to grant individual sanctions exemptions to companies seeking to operate in the country.
Following Maduro’s U.S. detention, U.S. officials announced that Washington would ease sanctions on Venezuela’s energy industry.
President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing ahead with an ambitious $100 billion restructuring plan for the country’s oil industry and intends to control oil sales “indefinitely.”
As part of that effort, the United States and Caracas reached an initial $2 billion agreement in January to export Venezuelan crude oil, including to U.S. refiners.
In recent weeks, oil producers Chevron, Repsol and ENI, refiner Reliance Industries and some U.S. oil service providers have sought licenses from OPEC countries to expand production and exports.
Both companies are partners and customers of state oil company PDVSA.
Two sources said this week that a number of separate requests to the U.S. government have delayed progress on plans to quickly expand exports and invest in Venezuela.
Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Marianna Paraga, Christian Martinez, and Daphne Psaredakis. Editing: Rod Nickel and David Ljungren
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