India's ONGC receives US approval to resume Venezuela operations

India's state oil company ONGC has received US permission to restart and grow its oil business in Venezuela. A team of about twelve officials from ONGC's international arm, OVL, travelled to Venezuela for a week. They reviewed oil fields and met with Venezuelan energy officials. It was the first visit of this kind in several years. US sanctions had previously blocked ONGC from making financial transactions or expanding its operations there. The US Treasury issued a special licence to allow these activities. OVL owns a 40% share in a Venezuelan oil project and expects to recover more than $500 million in unpaid dividends. The company is also looking at taking over management of some projects from Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA.