India Reliance renews its offer to obtain a US license for Venezuelan crude: sources

Indian oil refiner Reliance Industries has again submitted a request to the United States for permission to import crude oil from the Venezuela sanctionedsaid three people close to the matter, and thus resume oil trade between the OPEC producer and the once-second most important destination for its oil.

French oil producer Maurel & Prom opened a separate new tab on Monday announcing that the United States on Friday granted it a license to conduct oil and gas operations in Venezuela for the next two years.

In April, the United States did not renew a general license for Venezuela to export oil and fuel to its chosen markets, giving companies 45 days to close the transactions. The US had said that some individual authorizations would be issued to foreign companies trying to do oil business with Venezuela.

The license had largely eased oil sanctions on Venezuela first imposed in 2019, moving to reimpose punitive measures in response to President Nicolás Maduro’s failure to comply with his electoral commitments.

After the easing of sanctions in October, Reliance and other Indian companies that did business in the past with Venezuela previously requested individual authorizations from the US Treasury. Those were not granted.

However, Indian refiners resumed purchases of Venezuelan oil through intermediaries. Since October, Reliance has chartered at least one supertanker to buy crude from state oil company PDVSA. It also received shipments of Venezuelan oil from third parties, according to internal PDVSA documents seen by Reuters.

Before US oil sanctions were first imposed on Venezuela, Reliance was the second-largest individual buyer of Venezuelan crude after China’s CNPC.

Reliance did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment.

Maurel & Prom’s license allows it to continue production activities under an agreement signed with Venezuela last November. His license is the first authorization issued by the United States under the exemptions it offered last month to its sanctions regime reimposed on the South American country.

“This gives us clear visibility for the future,” M&P CEO Olivier de Langavant said in a statement. The company owns a 40% stake in an oilfield joint venture with PDVSA and has agreed to increase oil production at the field.

In recent years, the US State and Treasury Departments have received dozens of license applications from companies interested in investing in Venezuela’s energy industry or importing Venezuelan crude oil or gas. Only a few of those individual applications have been approved, including a key license for US oil major Chevron, Opens in a new tab.

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