Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 06 2022
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LatAmOil                                       VENEZUEL A                                           LatAmOil



                         It does not need to take any such steps for the   and Norway’s Equinor are among the companies
                         ongoing exploratory talks, as these are permissi-  that have withdrawn from the country opera-
                         ble under US law. However, the waiver would be   tions since then.
                         required if the parties began formal discussions   With US companies barred from conducting
                         on conducting business in the Latin American   business in Venezuela, Chevron’s activities have
                         country.                             been effectively frozen in the South American
                           Chevron spokesman Ray Fohr acknowl-  state since April 2020. The US major is prohib-
                         edged these requirements, saying last week that   ited from collecting revenue or expanding its
                         the company “[continues] to conduct our busi-  investments in the country. ™
                         nesses in compliance with the current sanctions
                         framework provided by the US Office of Foreign
                         Assets Control [OFAC].”
                           Should a deal based on the ongoing talks
                         be reached, Chevron stands to obtain greater
                         control over its upstream assets in Venezuela
                         in exchange for debt relief. The US major owns
                         minority stakes in four joint ventures with state-
                         owned PdVSA, with shares ranging from 25% to
                         39%. Under Venezuelan law, foreign companies
                         are permitted a maximum equity stake of 49.9%.
                           Since the imposition of US sanctions on the
                         oil sector in early 2019, Chevron is one of the
                         few foreign companies to continue conducting
                         business in Venezuela. France’s TotalEnergies   Petropiar is one of Chevron’s joint ventures in Venezuela (Photo: PdVSA)


       PdVSA reportedly receives




       more Iranian condensate





                         VENEZUELA’S national oil company (NOC)   condensate last autumn, it has succeeded in
                         PdVSA has reportedly taken delivery of another   boosting output rates considerably. Accord-
                         shipment of Iranian gas condensate.  ing to previous reports, Venezuela extracted
                           Citing data from the Vortexa analytics firm,   525,000 barrels per day of oil in the first nine
                         Argus Media reported last week that Starla,   months of 2021 but saw output rise to 824,000
                         a very large crude carrier (VLCC) owned by   bpd on average in November. Before the end
                         National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC), had   of last year, it even managed to bring daily out-
                         docked in the Venezuelan port of Jose on Jan-  put up to the 1mn bpd level for the first time in
                         uary 28-29 and unloaded approximately 2mn   nearly three years.
                         barrels of gas condensate there. This was the first   The rise in crude production has reportedly
                         cargo of Iranian condensate to arrive in Vene-  helped the NOC boost domestic petroleum
                         zuela since the start of 2022.       product sales, as well as exports to Asia. ™
                           PdVSA began receiving Iranian condensate,
                         which it uses as a blendstock for extra-heavy
                         crude oil from the Orinoco River belt, under a
                         swap agreement with NITC’s parent company,
                         National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), last autumn.
                         It took delivery of at least three cargoes, each
                         containing 1.85-2.00mn barrels, between Sep-
                         tember and November of 2021.
                           The swap deal benefits both sides. On the
                         one hand, it helps Iran trade some of the con-
                         densate it has been storing in NITC’s tanker
                         fleet for crude. And on the other hand, it helps
                         PdVSA secure the diluent it needs to transform
                         its extra-heavy oil into a lighter synthetic fuel
                         that is easier to handle and process, while also
                         reducing the amount of crude building up in
                         storage because of US sanctions.
                           Since  PdVSA  started  receiving  Iranian   PdVSA blends condensate with its extra-heavy crude oil (Photo: PdVSA)



       P8                                       www. NEWSBASE .com                       Week 06   10•February•2022
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