U.S. officials have demanded Venezuela supply at least a portion of oil exports to the United States as part of any agreement to ease oil trading sanctions on the OPEC member nation, two people close to the matter said, Reuters reports.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday banned U.S. imports of Russian oil in retaliation for the special military actions in Ukraine, ramping up economic pressure on a key Venezuelan ally.
U.S. diplomats have worked to find energy supplies worldwide that can help compensate for disruption to Russian oil and gas exports caused by sanctions or war. U.S. officials met Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas for the first bilateral talks in years on Saturday.
Venezuela has been under U.S. oil sanctions since 2019 and could reroute crude if those restrictions were lifted.
U.S. officials made clear their priority was to secure supplies for the United States, the people told Reuters. The officials told their Venezuelan counterparts that any relaxation in U.S. sanctions would be conditional on Venezuela shipping oil directly to the United States, the sources said.
The United States had not previously made stipulations about the specific destination of cargoes permitted under waivers to sanctions.
The U.S. Department of State and Venezuelan state run energy company PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Chevron Corp, the last U.S. oil producer still operating in Venezuela, could be the first beneficiary if a deal is reached with Maduro's administration. Chevron has been barred from shipping Venezuelan oil from its joint ventures since 2020 and has pushed to overturn the ban.