Venezuelan oil could soon be heading to Europe as the continent looks for replacement barrels for banned Russian crude, reports Reuters.
Italian oil company Eni and Spain’s Repsol have been given the green light to resume shipments by US authorities, the wire agency said quoting unnamed sources.
The volume of oil Eni and Repsol are expected to receive is not large, one of the sources was quoted as saying.
Venezuelan oil exports to Europe as part of oil-for-debt swaps were halted two years ago when Washington stepped up sanctions on Venezuela.
US President Joe Biden’s administration hopes the Venezuelan crude can help Europe cut dependence on Russia and re-direct some of Venezuela’s cargoes from China, Reuters said.
The two European energy companies, which have joint ventures with Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA, will not be allowed to resell the imported oil elsewhere.
Reuters said Eni declined to comment, citing a policy of not commenting “on potential commercial sensitivity” issues, while Repsol did not reply to requests for comment.
The wire agency said Washington has not made similar allowances for US oil major Chevron, India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp and France’s Maurel & Prom, who are also said to have lobbied the US to take oil in return for billions of dollars in accumulated debts from Venezuela.
Venezuela vice president Delcy Rodriguez recently confirmed that the US government had authorised the US and European oil companies to “negotiate and restart operations” in Venezuela, according to a post on her Twitter account.
China has become the largest customer of Venezuelan oil, with as much as 70% of monthly shipments destined for its refiners.
