Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 06 2022

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ongoing exploratory talks, as these are permissi- that have withdrawn from the country opera-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