President Joe Biden's administration also will continue to prohibit oil-for-diesel swaps used by Spain's Repsol and Italy's Eni until last year to lift Venezuelan crude, nominee for assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere, Brian Nichols, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today. Maintaining status quo on Venezuela policy, despite acknowledging its shortcomings, shows how little the country has featured in the new US administration's initial foreign policy priorities. Firms like Repsol have used the change of guard in Washington to argue on humanitarian grounds for a reprieve in the economic pressure tactics against Venezuela, particularly for allowing non-US companies to lift Venezuelan crude in exchange for supplying diesel that is used in power generation, agriculture and public transport. Those arguments have found an eager audience among US lawmakers representing the Democratic party's progressive wing.