U.S. Issues License for Oil Companies to Operate in Venezuela

A new license granting U.S. oil companies expanded access to operate in Venezuela was issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

OFAC’s new license comes at a time when the Venezuelan socialist regime’s lawmakers approved a sweeping reform package to the nation’s notoriously strict hydrocarbons law, ending decades’ worth of socialist restrictions on the nation’s oil industry.

The license authorizes U.S. companies to engage in a variety of activities involving Venezuelan oil, such as buying, selling, transporting, or refining it, but it does not lift existing U.S. oil sanctions on production, nor does it authorize transactions linked to Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.

The license’s terms stipulate that any person who engages in the