Sao Paulo, 25 August (Argus) — Two of three tankers carrying Venezuelan crude have discharged in the US since 21 August, carrying around 1.3mn bl of heavy sour supply in total.
The movement signals a return of Venezuelan crude flowing into the US, after Chevron’s license to operate in the South American country was canceled in May.
The Mediterranean Voyager loaded at Bajo Grande’s Port in Venezuela on 13 August and discharged at Port Arthur, Texas, at a Valero refinery, according to ship tracking firms Vortexa and Kpler data. The vessel carried between 350,000-550,000 bl of Boscan crude.
The Canopus Voyager loaded at Jose Terminal in Venezuela on 14 August and discharged at Good Hope, Louisiana, at Valero’s St. Charles refinery on 21 August. The vessel possibly carried 500,000-600,000 bl of heavy sour Hamaca crude, also according to Kpler and Vortexa data.
And the Nave Neutrino loaded at Bajo Grande’s port on 16 August and was scheduled to discharge at Corpus Christi on 25 August, but this was delayed until later this week, ship tracking data indicates. The tanker carried between 300,000-350,000 bl of possible Boscan crude.
Chevron has said that its operations in Venezuela are in compliance with any sanctions frameworks.
The return of Chevron’s Venezuelan supply to the US market is expected to affect the regional supply of heavy sour crudes, possibly dropping prices for similar quality crude grades from Colombia and Mexico.
Colombian producers already expect prices for heavy sour Vasconia and Castilla grades to drop in the next loading program, which is planned to start this week.
Colombian supplies are currently at multi-year highs, because of tighter availability of heavy sour grades in the US since May. Values for Colombian crude grades started to rise even before that, when US president Donald Trump threatened tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports to the US earlier this year. Trump in the end did not apply the tariffs on energy commodities.
The movement comes as tensions rise between Venezuela and the US government. The US has deployed military vessels and aircraft towards Venezuela’s coast, some US lawmakers have confirmed, as part of anti-narcotics efforts. This comes after the US implicated Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a drug cartel it calls Los Soles and doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest to $50mn.
Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday backed the US deployment against drug cartels, volunteering its ports if asked, its prime minister said, going a step further than Guyana, which also supported the US effort last week.
The US military presence in the region could be meant to deter loading crude destined to skirt US sanctions rules, one source told Argus.
Another tanker not linked the Chevron, the Courage, had appeared set to load about 310,000 bl of crude at the Jose terminal late last week, based on ship tracking data, but backtracked and returned to the Dutch Antilles.
About 36 tankers which have ties to a network of carriers designed to sell sanctioned crude, the “dark fleet”, were near Venezuelan crude ports in July, the Venezuelan chapter of Transparency International said in a recent report.
The US military presence led Maduro to call his militia to the streets last week, but also on Sunday morning he freed eight political prisoners and remanded another five to house arrest. Venezuela has about 900 political prisoners still in custody, including some employees of state-owned oil company PdV, human rights organizations have said.
By João Scheller and Carlos Camacho
