International trading companies have begun direct exports of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. market following the signing of an agreement between the two governments that authorizes the sale of millions of barrels.
A tanker chartered by Trafigura departed Sunday from the Venezuelan port of Jose, carrying approximately one million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), according to LSEG data and documents, reported by Reuters. This shipment represents the first direct cargo to the United States under a recently agreed 50-million-barrel supply deal between Caracas and Washington.
Trading companies Vitol and Trafigura received the first U.S. licenses this month to load and export Venezuelan oil as part of the agreement, after which they began shipping cargoes to storage terminals in the Caribbean, from where they have traded and sold the crude to international refineries.
According to the Reuters report, the Liberian-flagged tanker Gloria Maris is carrying approximately one million barrels of Venezuelan Merey crude and is the first that the trading companies have sent directly to a U.S. port since the start of the agreement, according to available documents and data. In addition, the smaller Barbados-flagged vessel Volans sailed on Sunday with about 450,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude bound for the Bullen Bay terminal in Curaçao.
To date, traders have shipped between 10 and 11 million barrels of Venezuelan oil under the agreement and are preparing to begin exporting fuel oil, according to sources and documents reviewed. However, before Venezuela can reverse the production cuts implemented during the U.S. blockade, the country must deplete most of the more than 40 million barrels accumulated in storage since last month.
The volume of Venezuelan crude exported as part of the $2 billion supply agreement stood at approximately 7.8 million barrels last week, according to ship tracking data and PDVSA documents. The slow pace of shipments has prevented the state-owned company from fully reversing the production cuts. The agreement between Caracas and Washington, sealed this month, allows for the sale of up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil stored in tanks and vessels. Vitol and Trafigura were the first to obtain U.S. licenses to load and export the oil. However, the supply has not allowed PDVSA to quickly reduce inventories or reverse the production cuts initiated in January.
Sources involved in the transactions indicated that difficulties in transferring and storing the oil, as well as the reluctance of end customers to pay the requested prices, have delayed sales. Since January 12, when the first two tankers departed for terminals in the Bahamas and Saint Lucia, five more vessels have followed, transporting Venezuelan crude to those destinations and to Curaçao, according to reviewed shipping data.
The state-owned PDVSA, along with Vitol and Trafigura, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. officials reported last week that approximately $500 million from the initial oil sales had been deposited into a fund, a figure confirmed by the Venezuelan government, which announced the arrival of the first $300 million. The volumes exported have not been detailed.
In addition to the shipments handled by the trading companies, the only other company currently exporting Venezuelan crude is Chevron, PDVSA's main partner in a joint venture, which increased shipments this month from the 100,000 barrels per day exported in December, according to available data.
Oil transactions between Venezuela and the United States accelerated after the capture of former dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a U.S. military operation in Caracas. Since then, power has been assumed by the regime's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who has been considered by the White House as the official interlocutor to lead the transition to democracy in the Caribbean country.
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