(Reuters) – Venezuela’s oil exports slightly increased in February to some 670,000 barrels per day (bpd), but ongoing shipping delays worsened a bottleneck of tankers waiting to load, according to documents and vessel monitoring data.
State-run oil firm PDVSA’s customers have rushed to send tankers to Venezuela in recent months to pick up crude and fuel before the United States potentially reimposes oil sanctions.
Restrictions could resume on April 18 when an existing license expires, the U.S. has said, with PDVSA struggling to deliver cargoes ahead of the deadline.
Deliveries last month to clients including U.S.-based Chevron CVX.N and India’s Reliance Industries RELI.NS increased from January, but weaker output and a lack of diluents to produce exportable grades prevented PDVSA from raising total exports, the data showed.
PDVSA and its joint ventures exported an average 671,140 bpd of crude and fuel, mainly to Asia, a 7.5% increase from January. Venezuela also shipped 197,000 metric tons of oil byproducts and petrochemicals, below the 286,000 tons in January.
Chevron’s shipments of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. jumped to 184,000 bpd from 107,000 bpd the previous month. Venezuela’s shipments to political ally Cuba remained around 34,000 bpd, while deliveries to other Caribbean islands slightly increased.
Venezuela’s fuel imports rose to 144,000 bpd from 122,000 bpd in January.
