Curacao’s state-owned Isla oil refinery, which is operated by Venezuelan state-run company PDVSA, has received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on PDVSA, the Caribbean island’s government said in a statement on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on PDVSA in late January in a bid to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has overseen a collapse in the OPEC member nation’s economy. The license for the refinery, along with two other related companies, will allow the facility to continue to do business with U.S. companies through Jan. 15, 2020. The exemption comes as Curacao’s government seeks a new partner to replace PDVSA as the operator of the 335,000 barrel-per-day refinery, possibly before PDVSA’s contract to run the facility expires at the end of 2019. […]