The United States is preparing to issue a general license that would ease sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector in a bid to jump-start oil exports and attract investment after the dramatic U.S. capture of former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, the Reuters news agency reported citing U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The planned authorization would mark a shift from Washington’s previous policy of granting individual, case-by-case exemptions to companies seeking to operate in Venezuela’s oil industry.
U.S. officials have concluded that the growing volume of individual license requests has slowed efforts to expand production, increase exports and mobilize capital quickly, the sources told Reuters.
If issued, the broad license would underpin a proposed $2 billion oil supply deal between Washington and Caracas and support a sweeping $100 billion plan to rebuild Venezuela’s oil sector, which has been crippled by years of sanctions, underinvestment and mismanagement.
In recent weeks, a wide array of companies with links to Venezuela’s state oil firm, PDVSA, have sought individual U.S. licenses to expand operations.
Among the applicants are major global companies such as Chevron, Repsol and ENI, the Indian refiner Reliance Industries and several U.S. oil service providers.
The surge in applications has created bottlenecks within the U.S. government and delayed decisions that companies say are critical to restoring Venezuelan exports.
President Donald Trump, in a speech last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, emphasized Venezuela’s potential to boost oil revenues, saying the country is positioned to earn more from oil in the next six months than it has in the past two decades, underscoring a dramatic reversal in Washington’s policy following Maduro’s ouster.
Trump also praised Venezuela’s interim authorities for swiftly agreeing to a cooperation deal with the United States.
“The leadership is good and smart,” he said, referring to the new government, which is led by Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president and once his oil minister.
A White House official said Wednesday that Rodríguez is expected to visit Washington in the coming weeks, though no specific date or agenda has been provided. If confirmed, the trip would represent the most significant diplomatic engagement between the two countries in years.
Trump’s outreach to Rodríguez’s interim government highlights a pragmatic U.S. approach that prioritizes stability, energy flows and security cooperation over an immediate transfer of power to the traditional Venezuelan opposition.
The president has said the new government is operating in line with U.S. demands, including opening Venezuela’s oil sector to U.S. engagement and shipping millions of barrels of crude to the United States for sale.
“I was against Venezuela, but now I love Venezuela,” Trump said at a Tuesday press conference, adding that his administration has been “working very well” with Rodríguez’s team. He also asserted that Rodríguez has freed “many political prisoners,” a claim that human rights groups say requires independent verification.
(Miami Herald)
