The United States has eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector after lawmakers in Caracas approved reforms paving the way for U.S. companies to return.
Within an hour of the vote, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a general license allowing American firms to trade with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA, including the refining of oil.
The reform marks a significant shift in Venezuela’s energy policy. It amends a 2006 law that required foreign investors to operate through joint ventures in which PDVSA held a majority stake, a framework introduced under the late socialist president Hugo Chávez.
Addressing oil workers, acting president Delcy Rodríguez described the changes as a “historical leap” for the country’s economy.
“We are taking historic steps,” Rodríguez said after a call with Trump, who also announced the reopening of Venezuela’s airspace. Rodríguez has already ploughed $300 million (€276 million) from a first U.S. sale of Venezuelan crude into shoring up the country’s struggling currency, the bolivar.
Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves. It was once a major crude supplier to the United States, and multiple American firms operated in the country until 2007, when Chávez led a new wave of nationalizations.
