Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is turning to local partners as it seeks to plug the gap left by Western companies in the OPEC nation’s oil sector, according to interviews with a half dozen industry sources, as U.S. companies win a reprieve to maintain a limited presence in the South American country. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday extended for six months a measure allowing Chevron Corp (CVX.N) , Halliburton Co (HAL.N) and others to remain despite sanctions on PDVSA implemented by the Trump administration in 2019 to try to oust President Nicolas Maduro. read more In the more than two years since, crude output has tumbled by nearly two-thirds to less than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd). U.S. and European firms have scaled down their presence to comply with the restrictions or out of fear of possible punishment. But according to industry sources and several internal PDVSA […]