ONGC gets US licence to resume full Venezuela operations

State-owned ONGC has secured a licence from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), allowing it to resume full operations in Venezuela after years of curtailment due to sanctions, the company's director of finance Anupam Agarwal said. The approval removes a key hurdle and gives ONGC flexibility to expand production, sign new agreements and potentially take operatorship of projects from Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, The Hindu reports. ONGC Videsh Ltd holds a 40% stake in the San Cristobal oil project and an 11% interest in the Carabobo-1 project.

The licence is also expected to help ONGC recover between $500 million and $600 million in pending dividends that had been stranded because of sanctions, NDTV Profit reports. Agarwal said the company now has full freedom to work in Venezuela. San Cristobal produced about 0.265 million tonnes of oil equivalent in FY26, roughly a tenth of its potential. ONGC plans to invest in raising output from around 12,000, 15,000 barrels per day to 30,000 barrels per day within a year, according to media reports cited by NDTV Profit.

Agarwal noted that Venezuela's shallow onshore fields are geologically similar to ONGC's domestic operations in western India. The company is in talks with Venezuelan authorities and PDVSA and expects new agreements and a possible transfer of operatorship in the near term, The Hindu adds.