India's ONGC seeks US license to acquire PDVSA stakes in Venezuela oil fields

India's state‑owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is in talks with Venezuela's Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to purchase all or part of its shares in two oil fields. The targets are the San Cristóbal field, where ONGC Videsh already holds a 40% stake and PDVSA holds 60%, and the Carabobo‑1 field in the Orinoco Belt, where PDVSA holds 71% and ONGC Videsh holds 11% alongside other investors.

The transaction depends on securing a licence from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). ONGC has begun the required application process and hopes the licence will allow it to become the sole operator of San Cristóbal and to share the Carabobo‑1 development with Spain’s Repsol.

These negotiations could shift operating control of significant Venezuelan oil assets to the Indian firm, pending U.S. approval.