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Two oil companies could begin shipping Venezuelan oil to Europe as soon as next month to make up for Russian crude, resuming oil-for-debt swaps halted two years ago when Washington stepped up sanctions on Venezuela.
The volume of oil that Italian oil company Eni SpA and Spain’s Repsol Sare expected to receive is not large, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, adding that any impact on global oil prices will be modest.
The US State Department gave the nod to the two companies to resume shipments in a letter, the people said.
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.
Coaxing Maduro into restarting political talks with Venezuela’s opposition is another aim, two of the people told Reuters.
The two European energy companies, which have joint ventures with Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA, can count the crude cargoes toward unpaid debts and late dividends, the people said.
This comes as Vitol energy company, which is the biggest independent crude trader, has recently said that the US may allow more sanctioned Iranian oil onto global markets even without a revival of the 2015 nuclear accord, according to Bloomberg.
