India’s Top Private Refiner Gets U.S. License to Buy Venezuelan Crude

Despite the return of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, India’s biggest private refiner, Reliance Industries, has obtained a U.S. license to buy crude from the South American country, sources with knowledge of the matter have told Bloomberg.

Reliance Industries, as well as ONGC Videsh, the overseas unit of Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), have applied for special licenses to continue importing Venezuelan crude after the Biden Administration ended a six-month sanctions relief on Venezuela’s oil exports.

Reliance Industries was a major buyer of Venezuelan crude during the period of sanctions relief between October 18 and April 18. In fact, the conglomerate’s purchases accounted for 90% of all Indian crude oil imports from Venezuela, per data from intelligence firm Kpler cited by Bloomberg.

At the end of last year, Reliance, which was a regular buyer of Venezuelan crude before the U.S. slapped the sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s regime in 2019, was one of the first movers to book tankers to load oil from Venezuela and ship it to India.

In October 2023, the U.S. introduced a temporary sanctions relief until April 2024 that allowed the production, lifting, sale, and exportation of oil or gas from Venezuela, and the provision of related goods and services, as well as payment of invoices for goods or services related to oil or gas sector operations in Venezuela.

The six-month sanctions relief followed commitments by Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro to ensure fair elections this year.

However, given the lack of progress in Maduro’s promises for fair elections, the U.S. snapped back the sanctions on Venezuela’s oil.

The United States issued a 45-day wind-down license and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also will consider requests for specific licenses to continue activities beyond the end of the wind-down period on a case-by-case basis, the State Department said in April.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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