Venezuela’s oil exports slipped 8% last month amid contract reviews by the new chief of state-run oil firm PDVSA that have led to loading delays and port bottlenecks, shipping data and documents showed on Friday.
PDVSA Chief Executive Pedro Tellechea in January put most contracts to export crude and refined products on hold for audits, a move to stop vessels from departing before completing payments for the cargoes.
The decision has reduced the number of authorized customers to a handful of clients engaged in oil swaps and debt repayment deals with Venezuela. That list includes Cuba’s Cubametales, Iran’s Naftiran Intertrade Company and oil joint-venture partners Chevron Corp and Eni.
PDVSA and its joint ventures exported an average of 555,250 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuel in February, 8% below January and the lowest monthly figure since mid-2022, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and PDVSA’s internal documents.
About 70% of cargoes headed to China, Venezuela’s first destination for exports, both directly and through Malaysia, where vessels do cargo transfers.
CARGOES TO U.S., EUROPE
U.S. oil producer Chevron, which Washington authorized in November to expand operations and resume exports of Venezuelan oil to the United States, exported 86,215 bpd of heavy crude last month to its and other U.S. refineries. Eni received and sent a 656,000-barrel cargo to Spain.
Cuba, a Venezuelan political ally struggling with a fuel scarcity that has led to frequent power cuts, imported 52,320 bpd of Venezuelan crude, fuel oil and gasoline in February, according to the documents.
Venezuela also exported 347,000 metric tonnes of oil byproducts and petrochemicals last month, a sharp decline from the record of 727,000 tonnes shipped in January. Equipment malfunctions caused loading delays last month at the country’s largest export terminal, Jose.
Venezuela imported about 100,000 bpd of Iranian condensate in February. Another cargo is expected this month, along with a Chevron-supplied shipment of heavy naphtha to dilute its joint ventures’ extraheavy oil output.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Mircely Guanipa in Maracay, Venezuela, Editing by Angus MacSwan)