Venezuela’s oil exports fell slightly to 1.16 million barrels per day in July from 1.2 million bpd the previous month as the country drained fewer inventories, but exports to the U.S. jumped to some 786,000 bpd, the highest since early 2019, shipping data showed on Monday.
The OPEC country’s exports have recovered rapidly this year from historically low figures caused by U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade imposed by the Trump administration to oust President Nicolas Maduro. A key oil supply pact signed by Washington in January with interim President Delcy Rodriguez has allowed Venezuela’s oil to return to the U.S., Europe and India mostly through trading houses.
July’s export volume marked the second consecutive month of decline after a peak of 1.24 million bpd in May amid slower exports of crude and fuel from onshore and floating storage. But shipments showed a sustained growth to the U.S., from 284,000 bpd in January, according to the data.
Venezuela’s oil exports to India fell to some 178,000 bpd from 277,000 bpd, while cargoes to Europe declined to some 82,200 bpd from 99,000 bpd the previous month.
Exports by state-run PDVSA’s main joint venture partner, U.S. Chevron, remained almost unchanged at some 293,000 bpd, while trading firms including Vitol, Trafigura and Novum Energy shipped some 604,000 bpd in July, below the 775,000 bpd of June.
PDVSA last month resumed direct crude deliveries to partner Repsol to compensate pending debt, and plans to deliver a similar cargo to Maurel & Prom this month, the data and documents showed.
Venezuela also exported 324,000 metric tons of oil byproducts and petrochemicals in July, compared with 224,000 tons in June; and it imported some 81,000 bpd of heavy naphtha to dilute its heavy crude grades, according to the data.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Mircely Guanipa; Editing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Lisa Shumaker)