By Marianna Parraga and Jarrett Renshaw
HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - U.S. officials are working to issue a general license soon that would lift some sanctions on Venezuela's energy sector, three sources familiar with the preparation said on Tuesday, a shift from a previous plan to grant individual exemptions to sanctions for companies seeking to do business in the country.
Following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month, U.S. officials have said Washington
would ease sanctions imposed on Venezuela's energy industry to facilitate a $2 billion oil supply deal between Caracas and Washington and an ambitious $100 billion reconstruction plan for the country's oil industry.
Many partners and customers of state oil company PDVSA, including producers Chevron, Repsol and ENI, refiner Reliance Industries, and some U.S. oil service providers, have applied for individual licenses in recent weeks to expand oil output or exports from the OPEC member.
The volume of individual requests to the U.S. government has delayed progress on plans to expand exports and get investment moving quickly into the country, two of the sources said.
The U.S. Treasury Department, the White House and Venezuela's oil ministry did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Under former U.S. President Joe Biden, a broad license exempted many companies from U.S.-imposed sanctions, allowing them to export Venezuela's oil. That facilitated higher crude production and exports until the first quarter of last year, when President Donald Trump began his second term.
Trump's administration revoked the authorization as a way to put pressure on Maduro, and ordered the companies to wind down transactions. In December, he also ordered a blockade of all sanctioned vessels going in or out of the country, reducing Venezuela's oil exports to 500,000 barrels per day that month, about half of the 2025 average.
Exports have recovered in recent weeks after trading houses Vitol and Trafigura received the first licenses to supply up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. and other destinations.
A sweeping reform of Venezuela's main oil law that would also facilitate oil and gas investments, output and exports was approved in an initial vote last week and is expected to receive a final green light from the National Assembly as soon as next week, sources said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga, Jarrett Renshaw and Don Durfee; additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Arathy Somasekhar. Editing by Simon Webb and Nia Williams)
