The Trump administration plans to issue a general license as soon as this week allowing foreign oil companies to conduct upstream operations in Venezuela, according to three people familiar with the plan.
The general license will allow foreign companies to produce oil in the country holding the world’s largest crude reserves after years of being mostly shut out by U.S. sanctions. The Trump administration has made reviving Venezuela’s stalled oil production a key goal after it captured former leader Nicolás Maduro but has had a difficult time convincing U.S. companies to start drilling there.
Bloomberg first reported the administration’s plan to release a general license allowing oil drilling in Venezuela.
The White House is hoping that U.S. oil companies will use the license — which could be issued in as many as four separate parts — to send employees into Venezuela to examine the potential for drilling in a country where oil production and transportation infrastructure has deteriorated after years for financial neglect, corruption and political uncertainty, said one person briefed on the White House’s plans.
