By Marianna Parraga and Shariq Khan
NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) – U.S. oil major Chevron, global trading house Vitol and other oil traders, producers and refiners are competing to win deals for exports of Venezuelan crude as part of their talks with U.S. officials for licenses to do business with the country, industry sources said on Thursday.
The companies are lobbying the U.S. government hard for a share in future lucrative oil exports from the South American producer in the wake of the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro and Washington’s announcement of an initial $2 billion deal to supply Venezuelan oil to the U.S. and possibly other markets.
Chevron, currently the only foreign company with a U.S. authorization to export Venezuelan oil, is seeking authorization from Washington to expand its license to operate in Venezuela after the U.S. placed restrictions on it last year, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
As part of its request, the company is proposing to increase crude exports from its joint ventures to sell to third parties, and also to trade at least a portion of state-run PDVSA’s individual output, two of the sources said on Thursday.
Under a wide deal approved in late 2022, Chevron had been able to operate and expand business in Venezuela along with PDVSA, which allowed it to recover billions of dollars in pending debt. But license restrictions have knocked down its exports of Venezuelan crude to some 100,000 bpd in December.
The sources requested anonymity to discuss confidential information. Chevron and PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment. PDVSA said on Wednesday that negotiations related to the oil supply deal with the U.S. were progressing.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Swiss-based commodities traders Vitol and Trafigura are expected to be at the White House Friday for talks on marketing Venezuelan oil, sources told Reuters earlier on Thursday.
Vitol has received a preliminary special license from the U.S. government to begin negotiations to import and export oil from Venezuela for 18 months, Reuters reported earlier.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan in New York and Marianna Parraga in Houston; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Dmitry Zhdannikov)
