"Biden Administration Allows Chevron To Pump Oil In Venezuela—Here’s Why It’s So Controversial", 26 November 2022

...The Biden Administration granted a license to Chevron to resume oil production in Venezuela—easing sanctions imposed on the country in 2019 over corruption and human rights concerns—though a senior U.S. official is claiming it’s not related to the energy crunch caused by the war in Ukraine...

Recent talks between the U.S. and Venezuela began in March, one month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as President Joe Biden began searching for alternatives to Russian oil...[T]he Biden Administration released more than 200 million barrels from the federal emergency oil reserve in an effort to curb prices...

The license comes with several limitations, however, including a provision prohibiting Chevron from conducting any transactions with Iran or Russian owned-entities in Venezuela, Bloomberg reported. It also prohibits the country’s oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.—which the U.S. sanctioned in 2019—from receiving profits from Chevron’s oil sales...

In a statement, federal officials said the measure is aimed at “targeted sanctions relief” for “concrete steps that alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy,” adding the Treasury Department will “continue to hold accountable any actor that engages in corruption, violates U.S. laws or abuses human rights” in Venezuela...