Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 02 2022

LatAmOil TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO LatAmOil

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith and Energy Industries] and Shell and the sub-
Rowley said at a ceremony marking the signing sequent approval by [the] government,” he said,
of the PSC that the deal showed his administra- according to a report from Trinidad and Tobago
tion’s determination to secure more feedstock Guardian. “It signifies this government’s ongo-
for the country’s petrochemical and LNG plants. ing commitment and action to meet domestic
“Today’s event is the culmination of the natural gas requirements and our resourceful-
negotiations between the Ministry [of Energy ness in overcoming obstacles.” ™

VENEZUEL A
PdVSA reportedly preparing to export first

cargo of diluted crude oil since last April

VENEZUELA’S national oil company (NOC) to deliver diluted crude to foreign buyers has
PdVSA appears to have loaded a tanker with diminished greatly since early 2019, when the
diluted crude oil (DCO) for export for the first US government imposed sanctions targeting
time in the last nine months, according to a Venezuela’s oil sector.
report from Reuters. The sanctions have left PdVSA with few
The news agency said earlier this week that options for acquiring diluents such as gas con-
it had viewed an internal PdVSA schedule densate, which it blends with ultra-heavy crude
report showing that around 1.9mn barrels of from fields in the Orinoco Belt, but the company
DCO had been loaded onto an oil tanker flying recently gained access to additional volumes
under the Panamanian flag in the Venezuelan under a swap deal with National Iranian Oil Co.
port of Jose. The tanker was officially listed as (NIOC).
bound for Malaysia, which sometimes serves as According to previous reports, PdVSA com-
an intermediary destination for Venezuelan oil pensated NIOC with about 3.8mn barrels of
shipments to China, Reuters noted. its own flagship Merey-16 crude and used the
As of press time, the report had not been Iranian diluent supplies to ramp up output of
confirmed, and PdVSA had not commented on the less valuable DCO in the last few months of
the matter. But Reuters said, citing data from the 2021. It then had to load the extra production
TankerTrackers.com vessel monitoring service, into storage facilities, including tankers repur-
that the tanker had undocked at Jose on January posed as floating storage units (FSUs), for lack
9 after wrapping up loading operations and was of other export options.
awaiting permission to leave the port. The departure of the export cargo is likely to
If the news agency’s information is correct, ease pressure on PdVSA’s storage facilities and
this will be PdVSA’s first official export cargo allow production levels to remain at higher lev-
of DCO since April 2021. The NOC’s ability els. ™

Venezuelan oil tanker (File Photo)

Week 02 13•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9