WASHINGTON, January 30. /TASS/. The White House has expanded the ability of American oil companies to operate in Venezuela, a general license published by the US Treasury Department says.

The document states that American companies are allowed to carry out operations related to the "lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil, including the refining of such oil." This particularly applies to operations involving the state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.

However, the document specifies that the permission to conduct certain operations in Venezuela’s oil sector does not extend to transactions involving "a person located in or organized under the laws of the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Cuba, or any entity that is owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by or in a joint venture with such persons." The license also bars operations with companies located in the United States or Venezuela that are directly or indirectly linked to China.