Several European partners of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, including Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel & Prom, have applied for U.S. licenses or authorizations to export oil from Venezuela, industry sources told Reuters.
The terms being sought are similar to those granted by Washington in past years, which allowed companies to receive and export Venezuelan crude for their refineries and other customers, while supplying fuel to Venezuela through a debt-recovery mechanism, two of the sources said.
The companies have been unable to export Venezuelan oil since the second quarter of last year, when President Donald Trump’s administration suspended the licenses.
Repsol took part in a White House meeting last week in which Trump urged a group of oil companies to invest in Venezuela.
Repsol declined to comment. Maurel & Prom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
