Eni is among the five major oil companies that have received authorization from U.S. authorities to operate in Venezuela. The others are BP, Chevron, Repsol, and Shell. The announcement was made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department. The Venezuelan market is now reopening after the state oil company PDVSA had refused to sell crude to firms lacking individual U.S. licenses, limiting exports. Venezuela relies heavily on oil export revenues to finance government operations and urgently needs income from crude sales. The general licenses are intended to exempt these companies from U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry, which Washington eased following the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The measure by the U.S. administration allows international transactions to resume with five groups capable of absorbing Caracas’s production.