Despite Washington's sanctions, Reliance Industries in India has been given permission by the US to start importing oil from Venezuela again, a person with knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday.

In April, the United States reinstated sanctions on the oil industry in Venezuela due to President Nicolas Maduro's noncompliance with election-related obligations; however, some companies would be permitted to transact and function within the country.

Reliance did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and the US Treasury Department declined to comment. Bloomberg was the first to report the news.

Reliance was the second-largest individual purchaser of Venezuelan crude behind China's CNPC prior to the imposition of U.S. oil sanctions on the country in 2019.

After the sanctions were loosened in October, Reliance was one of the Indian refiners that the U.S. Treasury refused to license. As a result, Reliance re-submitted a request in May asking for permission to purchase crude oil from Venezuela.

Refiners in India, meanwhile, continued to get Venezuelan oil through middlemen until the were reapplied in June.

According to a source in the sector, India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp has also asked the US Office of Foreign Assets Control for a waiver in order to import crude oil from Venezuela.