Venezuela’s creditors welcomed its potential rapprochement with the U.S. but still face risks and uncertainties in collecting from the South American country’s bankrupt government as its relations with Washington, D.C.'s thaw, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A rollback of U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil points a way to resolving the country’s huge foreign debt obligations, but offers no immediate fix for its longstanding default, according to sanctions experts and other people close to its top external creditors. President Nicolás Maduro had asked Wall Street asset managers in recent months to press for an easing of U.S. sanctions to bring more Venezuelan crude oil into world markets—and to provide an opening for restructuring the country’s debts. Businesses and bondholders are barred from negotiating with Mr. Maduro’s administration, part of a wide-ranging sanctions campaign put in place by the U.S. under former President Donald Trump. The Biden administration is preparing to let Chevron Corp. resume drilling in Venezuela and to let the country’s oil exports flow to U.S. and European markets again, contingent on President Maduro embarking on talks with opposition leaders on holding free and fair elections, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Some investors and analysts are voicing cautious optimism that other commercial relations with the Venezuelan government will also be allowed to resume, including possible restructuring talks with its creditors.
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