On October 18, the US Treasury suspended certain sanctions measures on nVenezuela’s oil and gas sector operations.

India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships over 80% of its oil needs from overseas and wants to cut its crude import bill.

However, there are growing signs of a thaw in relations between the Biden administration and Caracas, with the sides holding talks to explore temporarily lifting sanctions to encourage Venezuela to hold competitive presidential elections next year.

Situated in southeast Venezuela, the Orinoco Belt contains some of the largest reserves of crude in the world, but the oil needs dilution and upgrading because of its extremely high viscosities and heavy metal content.

India was an attractive market for the US for innovation, alternative energy, and investment avenues.

The desperately needed shipments have caused a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran and Venezuela, which are under U.S. sanctions.

Economic sanctions should be lifted to prevent hunger crises in countries hit by COVID-19 – UN rights expert

Rosneft Trading and TNK Trading handled a "large percentage" of Venezuela's oil exports in 2019

Venezuela's oil exports increased to 1.046 million barrels per day (bpd) last month from 960,000 bpd in January,

TNK Trading International SA is scheduled to load 14.3 million barrels of Venezuelan crude in the first two months of 2020, compared with 5 million in all of 2019, according to shipping reports compiled by Bloomberg. That may offset any lost oil revenue for the Maduro administration, underscoring the difficulty of shutting Venezuela’s access to the global market.

The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based subsidiary of the Russian state oil company, for supporting Venezuela's oil sector by continuing to trade with sanctions-hit PDVSA

The sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department against Rosneft’s subsidiary RTSA and its Chairman are illegal, unjustified, and an act of legal abuse.

US imports of unfinished oils from Russia averaged 472,000 b/d in November, the most since May 2013, when the same amount of unfinished oils was imported from Russia.

Brent rose 24 cents, or 0.4%, to $55.17 a barrel, WTI were up 15 cents, or 0.3%, at $51.10 a barrel,

The US was prepared to sanction Rosneft if it continued to trade crude oil and fuel with PDVSA, but analysts said those sanctions have yet to be imposed because of the expected impact they may have on the global oil market.