The largest independent oil trader in the world, Vitol Group, is discussing the purchase of Venezuelan crude oil from a Mexican firm that had received the crude in exchange for aid, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing emails and documents that it has reviewed. Vitol hasn’t traded Venezuelan crude oil since the beginning of last year when the U.S. tightened sanctions against Nicolas Maduro’s regime and essentially banned Venezuelan crude oil exports into the United States. Since then, the U.S. Administration has further increased the pressure on Maduro and Venezuela’s oil industry by sanctioning last month a Geneva-based trading unit of Rosneft, saying that the company Rosneft Trading has been helping Maduro’s regime to evade sanctions and to continue selling oil to keep the regime alive. Washington sanctioned its second Rosneft subsidiary this week. Vitol is negotiating the purchase of Venezuelan oil from Mexican firm Libre Abordo, which had received […]