The Trump administration intends to issue another round of licenses for U.S. companies to pump Venezuelan oil; the nation has long been treated as off-limits due to sanctions.
Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that the administration plans to roll back the sanctions first put in place against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. New licenses could come as soon as this week.
“The President’s team is working around the clock to ensure oil companies are able to make investments in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. Stay tuned!” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since U.S. forces removed Maduro a month ago in a raid that killed 100 people, the Trump administration has taken steps to unwind the sanctions and make it easier for U.S. companies to do business in Venezuela without triggering severe financial penalties.
The U.S. now wields control over Venezuelan oil and dictates to the post-Maduro government the terms under which it's sold. The revenue from those sales is then channeled into a U.S.-controlled account in Qatar, and eventually transferred back to the country's central bank.
The Treasury Department issued a general license last week allowing U.S. firms to buy, sell, and store Venezuela's light crude.
The new government under interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has sought to relax state control of the Venezuelan oil industry, which has been in free fall for years.
The Venezuelan National Assembly recently approved so-called "hydrocarbon reform" legislation that will hand foreign companies operational control in new oil ventures around the country.
Still, there's been limited appetite among the U.S. oil giants that the Trump administration is counting on to spend at least $100 billion to revive an industry in shambles.
During an earnings call on Friday, ExxonMobil $XOM CEO Darren Woods said the company was going to wait and see whether Venezuela's legal and financial landscape improves before committing to spend again in the country. Woods previously described Venezuela as "uninvestable" during a White House summit with oil executives.
He reiterated ExxonMobil's support to send a technical team to assess the situation on the ground in the near-future.