Venezuela's February oil exports boosted by heavy crude, fuel oil sales

 

Venezuela's exports of oil and refined products last month recovered to mid-2021 levels, boosted by sales of its flagship crude grade and fuel oil bound for Asia, according to tracking data and documents from state-run oil company PDVSA.

Higher exports come as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and..

resulting shipping bans and financial sanctions could spur demand for Venezuela's crude and residual products, traders said. Oil importers this week have rejected Russian vessels, sending buyers searching for new crude and fuel supplies.

Venezuela's state-run PDVSA and its JVs shipped a total of 22 cargoes in February, carrying some 730,930 bpd, the highest since July 2021 and a 76%-increase over January, according to the data and company documents.

Most cargoes departed bound to China through trans-shipping hubs like Malaysia.

The intermittent operation of PDVSA's oil upgraders forced the company to produce and export more Merey 16, its most popular grade, leaving 9.4 MM bbl of its competitor oil, diluted crude, in storage, the documents showed.

PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment.

The switch, which also led to less domestic refining for motor fuel production, allowed PDVSA to overcome four outages at its upgraders last month. At the month's end, only the Petrosinovesa blending station and the Petropiar crude upgrader were operational.

PDVSA also exported almost 66,000 bpd of crude and fuel to its political ally Cuba

Από το hydrocarbonprocessing.com