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The volume of Venezuelan oil already headed to China before the U.S. seized a Venezuelan tanker last week, plus a glut of crude in storage and weak demand, will limit the near-term impact of the move in the Chinese market, traders and analysts said. Exports from the South American producer have fallen sharply since the U.S. seized a tanker off Venezuela's coast and imposed new sanctions on shipping firms and vessels doing business with it, with the prospect of further seizures deterring [Read more]

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA was subject to a cyber attack orchestrated by the U.S. and domestic conspirators, the company and the country's oil ministry said in a statement on Monday, adding operations have been unaffected, though four sources said systems remained down, affecting oil cargo deliveries. The attack comes amid high tensions between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments, including a large-scale U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean, U.S. strikes on alleged drug [Read more]

The U.S. has demanded that the European Union exempt its oil and gas from obligations under the bloc's methane emissions law on fuel imports until 2035, a U.S. government document seen by Reuters showed. Starting this year, the EU requires importers of oil and gas to Europe to monitor and report methane emissions associated with those imports, in a bid to curb emissions of the potent planet-warming gas. The world-first climate policy has faced opposition from U.S. Energy Secretary Chris [Read more]

The cost of shipping oil is likely to remain high in the first half of 2026 as the global fleet ages and a rising number of vessels are hit with Western sanctions, shipping sources say, though rates could be capped in the second half. In recent weeks, the cost of shipping oil has risen to about $130,000 a day for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) thanks to high demand from OPEC and its allies. On top of that, the supply of available ships has been reduced because some vessels have been [Read more]

Venezuela's regional allies voiced support for the government in a summit on Sunday, condemning the Trump administration’s seizure of an oil tanker last week. The seizure of the Skipper tanker off Venezuela's coast last Wednesday marked the first U.S. capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since U.S. sanctions were imposed in 2019. The support for President Nicolas Maduro, at a televised virtual meeting of the leftist ALBA bloc of Caribbean and Latin American countries, occurred during the [Read more]