Page 6 - NorthAmOil Week 03 2023

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

US-Venezuela relations

appear to be shifting

Ties between the two countries have moved in a positive

direction since late December, and recent developments

may signal additional progress

US-VENEZUELA SINCE late December, the relationship between
the US and Venezuela appears to have been shift-
WHAT: ing in a positive direction.
Chevron is set to Two tankers chartered by Chevron arrived
transport 1.5mn barrels in Venezuelan ports, one to pick up a load of
of Venezuelan crude to crude oil that had been in storage for nearly four
the US in January and will years and another to deliver a load of naphtha to
sell half of the total to Petropiar, one of the US major’s joint ventures
other companies. with the national oil company (NOC) PdVSA.
These arrivals marked the company’s first export
WHY: operations in Venezuela since the imposition of
These developments US sanctions on that country’s oil industry in
mark a significant change early 2019.
after nearly four years of The first tanker, the Caribbean Voyager, deliv-
sanctions. ered its 500,000-barrel cargo of Hamaca grade
crude to a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer hub near
WHAT NEXT: Aruba. At the hub, the oil was moved to another
ConocoPhillips is angling tanker, the Sealeo, which then sailed to the US
for a deal but faces more Gulf Coast and arrived at Chevron’s refinery in
complications. Pascagoula, Mississippi, on January 15.
The second tanker, meanwhile, discharged
620,400 barrels of US-produced heavy naphtha slated to lift about 1.5mn barrels of Venezuelan
in the port of Jose on January 5. Petropiar is set oil in the month of January, with about half of the
to use this material as a diluent to facilitate the total going to the Pascagoula refinery.
processing of extra-heavy Orinoco crude oil in In the meantime, another US firm, Cono-
its upgrading unit. coPhillips, was reported last week to be in
preliminary talks with Caracas on its options
Chevron shipments for transporting and selling Venezuelan oil to
Chevron appears to be pleased by these events US buyers. If these discussions bear fruit, they
and indicated last week that it was willing to would see ConocoPhillips returning to Vene-
bring more Venezuelan oil to the US market – zuela after a hiatus of more than 15 years.
not just for its own use, but for resale to other These developments all appeared to be sig-
companies. nalling a shift toward co-operation, especially
Indeed, the US major may already be work- when viewed against the backdrop of nearly
ing to make this happen. Bloomberg quoted an four years of sanctions. And now there seem to
unnamed source with knowledge of the situa- be new signs pointing in the same direction.
tion as saying on January 14 that Phillips 66 had
bought some 500,000 barrels of Hamaca crude Contract suspension
from Chevron. The Carina Voyager tanker has Earlier this week, reports emerged that PdVSA
already arrived in Venezuela to load the oil, the had suspended most of its oil export contracts.
news agency said. The suspension order has caused traffic to back
Bloomberg also reported on the same day that up in Venezuelan ports, as vessels that were tak-
the Kerala, a tanker not chartered by Chevron, ing on oil have had to halt loading operations,
was on track to deliver 250,000 barrels of Boscan move away from their berths and wait for new
crude from Venezuela to Pascagoula within the instructions, sources familiar with the matter
next few days. Overall, it added, Chevron is told Reuters.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 19•January•2023