Uche Cecil Izuora
Venezuela has recorded improved oil exports with some 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January under U.S. control, from 498,000 bpd in December, following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and the end of an oil blockade on the country, which has allowed traders to carry most exports, shipping data showed.
Washington in December imposed an oil embargo on the U.S.-sanctioned country to pressure Maduro and seized seven tankers.
The blockade led to the accumulation of over 40 million barrels of crude and fuel in onshore tanks and vessels that could not be exported and forced state-run energy company PDVSA to cut output in early January.
Since the U.S. Treasury Department extended the first licenses to traders Trafigura and Vitol in January to begin exporting the stocks, oil production, processing and shipments from the OPEC nation have accelerated, according to the data.
The January volume was close to average exports of 847,000 bpd last year, but PDVSA’s partners and traders would have to continue accelerating the pace of exports to drain millions of barrels of oil still in inventories so output cuts can be fully reversed.
The Treasury Department last week issued a broad license authorizing business between U.S. companies and PDVSA to export, store, transport and refine Venezuelan oil, another step to untangle exports. PDVSA’s partners, including Chevron, are still waiting for individual licenses to expand operations.
The United States last month regained its position as the main individual destination of Venezuela’s crude with some 284,000 bpd exported there, of which 220,000 bpd were shipped by Chevron, a large increase from the 99,000 bpd it sent the previous month.
Vitol and Trafigura exported some 12 million barrels of Venezuelan crude and fuel oil under U.S. licenses, or about 392,000 bpd in January, mostly to storage terminals in the Caribbean, the data showed, from which they began exporting and marketing cargoes to customers in the U.S., Europe and India.