India’s Reliance Industries has been granted permission by the United States to resume importing oil from Venezuela, despite the existing sanctions imposed by Washington. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the news on Wednesday.
In April, the US re-imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector in response to President Nicolas Maduro’s failure to fulfill his election promises. However, the US government announced that certain companies would be authorized to trade and operate in Venezuela.
The US Treasury Department has declined to comment on this recent development, while Reliance has not yet responded to requests for comment. The news was initially reported by Bloomberg.
Prior to the initial US oil sanctions imposed on Venezuela in 2019, Reliance was the second-largest individual buyer of Venezuelan crude, trailing only China’s CNPC.
After the US eased sanctions in October, Reliance re-submitted a request in May for authorization to import crude oil from Venezuela. However, the US Treasury initially refused to grant licenses to Indian refiners, including Reliance.
Despite this, Indian refiners continued to purchase Venezuelan oil through intermediaries until the sanctions were re-imposed in June.
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has also submitted a request for a waiver from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to allow it to import crude oil from Venezuela, according to an industry source.
