US scales down sanctions on Venezuela, enabling US oil giant Chevron pump oil

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) - The Biden administration scaled back Washington’s sanctions against Venezuela Saturday to enable American oil big Chevron to expand its operations.

Following an agreement with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and the opposition, the Venezuelan Unity Platform, the US administration eased oil sanctions to support the restart of the negotiation process in Mexico.

Venezuela's government and the opposition inked a partial agreement Saturday, following talks in Mexico City.

"A humanitarian agreement focused on education, health, food security, flood response, and electricity programs that will benefit the Venezuelan people; and agreement on the continuation of talks focused on the 2024 elections," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

With the Venezuela General License 41 issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Chevron will resume "limited natural resource extraction operations" in Venezuela, it added.

The move is expected to reopen US and European markets to oil exports from Venezuela.