Washington has tightened its grip on Venezuela by extending sanctions to companies supplying diluents to the South American country. “We are tightening the loop on any potential workarounds on the standing sanctions that allow the Maduro regime to still find ways to exploit PDVSA as a cash cow,” one Washington official told Reuters, adding “The changing of the language [of the Venezuela sanctions statement] puts international companies on notice that any continued engagement or transactions they have with PDVSA selling diluents is at risk, or subject to future potential sanctions.” The United States has been targeting Venezuela with increasing sanction pressure since January when President Nicolas Maduro was inaugurated for a second term in office after last year’s elections that the U.S. called illegitimate. The sanctions have effectively put a stop to Venezuelan crude oil exports to U.S. refiners, which has happened at an increasingly inconvenient time for the […]