RIL Gets US Nod To Resume Venezuelan Oil Import: Report

Reliance Industries got approval from the USA to resume importing oil from North American country Venezuela despite White House sanctions on the country, Bloomberg reported while citing sources.

Bloomberg reported that India’s largest privately owned refiner plans to start purchasing Venezuelan crude soon. Reliance accounted for around 90 per cent of India’s crude imports from Venezuela after the sanctions were lifted last year, according to data intelligence firm Kpler. 

Washington temporarily removed restrictions on the South American nation’s gold and oil sectors last year, when President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition signed a deal to guarantee free and fair elections. The sanctions were then reinforced in April after Venezuela failed to honour the agreement, and oil companies have been applying for permits from the US Treasury Department to keep doing business there.

Venezuela’s crude exports climbed to 6,54,000 barrels a day in June, the highest since April 2020, as per shipping reports and data from Kple. This development registered after the US granted a specific license for companies to continue to drill in the country despite the sanctions being in place.

Apart from Reliance, India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas corporation’s overseas investment arm ONGC Videsh Ltd. has also applied for waivers to import crude from Venezuela.