US sets deadline for foreigners dealing in Venezuela oil
- Crisis-hit country exports oil around the world, to buyers including India and Europe
Non-US entities buying oil or petroleum products from Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA in deals that involve the US financial system, brokers or people must wind down those transactions by April 28, the US Treasury Department said in a notice posted early on Friday.
The notice clarifies some of the confusion that has surrounded US sanctions imposed on Venezuela earlier in the week. Besides the United States, Venezuela sells its oil to buyers around the world, including India and Europe, and the country has been seeking buyers elsewhere to replace the roughly 500,000 barrels a day it sells to the United States.
US officials imposed sanctions on state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, this week, a move that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called illegal.
The global oil industry has since sought to sort out the large-scale sanctions, which froze the assets of PDVSA and also require US firms to pay for oil into accounts controlled by Juan Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s opposition party and the self-proclaimed interim president.
US President Donald Trump and his administration have thrown their support behind Guaido.
Even before Friday’s notice, European buyers had pulled back on taking shipments from Venezuela due to concerns about how to make payments.
