State-owned ONGC can now restart full operations in Venezuela after its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), received a licence from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The company had been restricted from operating fully in the country because of US sanctions.
The approval removes a major hurdle for ONGC's Venezuelan investments and is expected to give the company greater flexibility to expand production, enter into new agreements and potentially take direct operatorship of key projects from Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA, as per the Economic Times.
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ONGC Director Finance Anupam Agarwal said the licence would allow the company to work more freely on its Venezuelan projects. "Now we have full freedom to work on the Venezuela project because earlier we were restricting our operations there because of the sanction-related risks. Those risks are behind us," Agarwal said.
ONGC is also in discussions with Venezuelan authorities and PDVSA and expects to pursue new agreements.
The licence could also help ONGC recover between $500 million and $600 million in pending dividends that have remained stranded because of sanctions-related restrictions. The company expects greater access to project finances to facilitate the recovery of these funds.
OVL currently holds a 40 per cent stake in the San Cristóbal oil project and an 11 per cent interest in the Carabobo-1 project. San Cristóbal has been operating significantly below its potential, producing around 0.265 million tonnes of oil equivalent in FY26. ONGC plans to invest in field operations and raise production from approximately 12,000-15,000 barrels per day to 30,000 barrels per day within a year, as per media report.
Agarwal said Venezuela's shallow onshore fields have geological similarities with ONGC's domestic operations in western India, including fields around Mehsana and Ahmedabad, making the projects compatible with the company's technical expertise, according to the Economic Times.
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ONGC's renewed involvement comes as India seeks to diversify crude oil supplies and strengthen energy security amid geopolitical uncertainties and disruptions in global energy markets.
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