UPDATE 1-US eases sanctions on Venezuelan oil industry

The Trump administration on Thursday eased some sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry as it seeks to expand ⁠production there after U.S. forces ousted the South American country's President Nicolas Maduro on January 3.

The U.S. Treasury issued a general license authorizing transactions involving the government of Venezuela and state oil company ​PDVSA that are "ordinarily incident and necessary to the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, ‍marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil, including the refining of such oil, by an established U.S. entity." The decision to issue a general license marks a shift from a previous plan to grant individual exemptions ⁠to sanctions ‌for companies seeking to ⁠do business in the country.

Following the U.S. capture of Maduro, U.S. officials have said Washington would ease sanctions ‍imposed on Venezuela's energy industry. The administration of President Donald Trump is pursuing an ambitious

$100 billion reconstruction plan for ​the country's oil industry, and intends to manage the oil sales "indefinitely."

As part of that ⁠effort, the U.S. and Caracas reached an initial $2 billion deal

in January to export Venezuelan crude oil, including to U.S. refiners. Oil ⁠producers Chevron, Repsol and ENI , refiner Reliance Industries, and some U.S. oil service providers have sought licenses in recent weeks to expand output or exports from the OPEC ⁠member.

The companies are partners and customers of state oil company PDVSA. The large number of individual requests ⁠to the U.S. government ‌had

delayed progress on plans to expand exports and get investment moving quickly into Venezuela, two sources said this week.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)