Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez delivers a speech outside the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas on January 29, 2026. PEDRO MATTEY / AFP
The United States on Thursday, January 29, eased sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry, expanding the ability of US companies to operate in the country after the lifting of state controls on the sector. Within an hour of Venezuelan MPs voting to open the oil industry to private investment, the US Treasury Department greenlit a range of activities by US energy companies.
The department issued a general license allowing transactions relating to "the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil."
The activities authorized include the refining of oil, the license said.
Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodriguez hailed the reform as a "historical leap."
