New Delhi, Feb. 12 -- New Delhi is positioning for an oil windfall from Venezuela, as the South American nation prepares to re-route hundreds of thousands of crude oil barrels currently shipped to China.

As American sanctions on Venezuela end, Caracas may dispatch to India and the US 400,000 barrels per day that it now sends to Beijing, three people aware of the matter said. New Delhi, the world's third-largest oil buyer, used to purchase 400,000 bpd from Venezuela until the US imposed sanctions in 2020.

"China was importing about 400,000 bpd of crude from Venezuela earlier. Part of this may be diverted to India now, and the US would obviously be among the key buyers," one of the three people cited above said on the condition of anonymi...