Venezuela’s oil exports in June rose 8% from the previous month to above 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), fueled by the restart of a key crude processing unit and faster approvals for cargoes departing its shores, according to shipping data and documents from state oil company PDVSA.

Exports by PDVSA and its joint ventures declined earlier this year as an extensive audit of oil sales temporarily froze most supply contracts and led to delays authorizing vessel departures.

Second-quarter shipments flowed with less hiccups with U.S. oil major Chevron CVX.N consistently increasing Venezuelan crude exports to the U.S. under a license extended by Washington, and with PDVSA renewing other contracts and signing new supply deals.

A total of 37 cargoes departed Venezuelan ports in June carrying 715,933 bpd of crude and refined products, and 294,000 metric tons of oil byproducts, according to the data and documents.

CARGOES TO CHINA, IRAN

The main destination of Venezuelan exports, directly and through trans-shipments hubs like Malaysia, was China. Chevron’s exports fell slightly to some 134,000 bpd from 150,000 bpd in May, while deliveries to ally Cuba rose to some 75,000 bpd last month, compared with 58,000 bpd in May.

Iranian companies received about 131,000 bpd of crude and fuel oil last month as part of a swap agreement that also allowed PDVSA to discharge 2.1 million barrels of Iranian condensate in recent weeks. Separately, Chevron supplied its joint ventures with a 450,000-barrel cargo of U.S. heavy naphtha, the shipping data showed.

Venezuela’s oil exports averaged 670,000 bpd in the first half of the year, almost 15% above the 585,000 bpd of the same period of 2022.

PDVSA and Venezuela’s oil ministry did not reply to requests for comment.

HIGHER INVENTORIES

A 150,000-bpd crude upgrader operated by PDVSA and Russian state firm Roszarubezhneft restarted operations in mid-June following a December fire that caused extensive damages, one of the documents showed. The unit turns extra heavy oil into exportable grades.

The Petromonagas upgrader, which was producing some 73,000 bpd of diluted crude at the end of June, is the fourth oil processing facility now in service in the Orinoco Belt, Venezuela’s main oil-producing region. It joined Petrolera Sinovensa, Petropiar and Petrocedeno in processing extra heavy crude. One upgrader remains offline.

PDVSA’s inventories of upgraded and diluted crudes from the Orinoco jumped to some 6.1 million barrels at the end of June from 5.8 million barrels in May. But they stood below April’s 7.5 million barrels, the documents showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Mircely Guanipa in Maracay, Venezuela, Editing by Marguerita Choy)