A growing number of vessels were having to wait to load crude and fuel in Venezuela, with state-run oil firm PDVSA struggling to deliver cargoes on time, reported Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, documents and shipping data.
PDVSA had sought to increase shipments this month, according to the documents and data, following setbacks in January. Outages at Venezuela’s main port had hit its exports.
As of last Monday February 26th at least 19 supertankers were waiting to load near Venezuela’s Jose and Amuay ports, from where most exports are shipped. This was up from about 12 at the end of November.
Last October the US Treasury Department extended a six-month licence to Venezuela approving oil exports to its chosen destinations. This was intended to encourage a fair presidential election this year. However, Washington has said since said that President Nicolas Maduro has fallen short of his promises. It has threatened to reverse the relaxation of sanctions in April.
Data from financial firm LSEG, plus PDVSA documents, showed that some tankers, mainly bound for destinations including India, Malaysia and China, had been waiting since December. While cargoes heading for the US had also been delayed, these had not been to the same degree as for those to Asia.
PDVSA has told many customers it does not have enough exportable crude inventories to accelerate deliveries, Reuters sources stated.
Last week, PDVSA’s heavy crude stocks at its main storage hub, the Jose port, rose to some 6.8m barrels, from 5.32m barrels at the end of January.
A possible lack of crude to fulfil all cargoes negotiated since October could force some ship owners to leave Venezuelan waters empty handed in coming months if Washington reimposes the sanctions, even after having waited for months to load, some of the sources claimed.
