US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested independents and “wildcatters” may move faster than listed majors, saying their phones were “ringing off the hook” with interest in Venezuela, CNBC reported.
Venezuela has been under US sanctions since 2006, which tightened in 2017 and expanded to broad oil sanctions in 2019, Reuters reported.
Washington now plans to selectively roll back some measures as it starts marketing Venezuelan crude, with proceeds flowing into US-controlled accounts at global banks, according to the US Department of Energy.
Deutsche Bank economists called Venezuela “a country with huge geopolitical and economic significance,” noting it represents only 0.1 percent of global GDP but holds outsized oil reserves.
Researchers at the Institute of International Finance warned that markets still face a binary question: whether this transition becomes a credible stabilisation and reform path that lifts production, or stalls amid political and institutional frictions, Bloomberg reported.