Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez is likely to visit India later this week, sources said on Monday. She was scheduled to visit New Delhi in the first week of June to attend the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) summit, which was postponed due to the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

Rodriguez’s India visit comes as India diversifies its oil import sources because of the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. India has ramped up its purchases of Venezuelan oil in recent weeks to offset lost cargoes from West Asia.

New Delhi has maintained that Venezuela has been a long-standing energy partner. Venezuela was a major source of India’s crude oil until FY20, when imports were discontinued following sanctions.

Imports from Venezuela resumed in FY24 before being halted again due to the reimposition of sanctions. Indian public sector undertakings (PSUs) established a partnership with Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVSA, and Indian PSUs have maintained a presence in that country since 2008. In February, US President Donald Trump said India had agreed to buy more oil from Venezuela.