Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 20 2020
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Jose Pedraza, the firm’s chief of operations, was quoted by Argus Media as saying last week that many retail sellers were having difficulty paying for the gasoline and diesel that they typically buy on seven-day credit lines.
Despite these challenges, US-based Valero has unveiled plans for expanding its down- stream operations in that country. Last week, the firm said it wanted to add another 60 retail
outlets to its chain in Mexico by the end of the year. Valero opened its first station in Mexico in January and has already brought the number of its outlets up to 40.
Mexico is home to approximately 12,500 filling stations. About 65% of these are owned by Pemex, the national oil company (NOC). Nevertheless, Pemex has seen its market share decline in recent years.
VENEZUELA
PdVSA partner said to have received at least two Venezuelan crude cargoes
GPB Global Resources, a joint venture partner of Venezuela’s state oil company PdVSA, has reportedly received at least two cargoes of Ven- ezuelan crude in recent months.
The cargoes were traded as part of a deal to settle pending debt from the Petrozamora joint venture that PdVSA and GPB Global Resources established in 2012, Reuters said, citing two sources and a shipping document. The latter company was founded by a former executive of Russia’s Gazprombank.
According to the news agency, GPB Global Resources received 1.1mn barrels of crude from PdVSA in March and then used the Eurovoyager tanker to export those volumes. Then in early April, the company took delivery of a second cargo of about the same size and exported it via the Eurodignity tanker, Reuters added, citing a shipping document and one of its unnamed sources.
As of press time, GPB Global Resources had not confirmed the report. When contacted by Reuters, it said that it declined to comment “on specific contractual or commercial issues.” It added: “GPB Global Resources and its subsid- iaries are conducting business in compliance with all applicable rules and regulations, includ- ing sanctions.”
That remark was a reference to the possibil- ity that GPB Global Resources may be subject to penalties under the US sanctions regime. The administration of President Donald Trump imposed sweeping sanctions on PdVSA in Jan- uary 2019, in a bid to hit the country’s oil exports and put pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro to step down. (Washington supports efforts by Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s opposi- tion leader, to replace Maduro with an interim government.)
The imposition of stricter sanctions last year effectively banned shipments of Venezuelan oil to the US, which has traditionally been PdVSA’s principal market. As a result, the Venezuelan company is now sending most of its oil exports
to China and India.
Nevertheless, exports to regions other than
the US have been adversely affected by the sanc- tions. As a result, the country’s oil exports fell by around a third last year to an average of 1mn barrels per day (bpd). Now buyers and others involved in sales of Venezuelan crude are com- ing under increasing pressure by the US gov- ernment, which is looking for ways to put more pressure on Maduro.
Since few companies are willing to do busi- ness directly with PdVSA in the face of pressure from the US, joint venture partners are starting to be used as intermediaries, Reuters noted. It explained that these joint ventures were now starting to sell their oil to PdVSA, which has a monopoly on exports of crude oil under Vene- zuelan law. In turn, it said, the state oil firm allo- cates the cargoes to its joint venture partners.
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