((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto)) by Marianna Parraga and Mircely Guanipa
Venezuelan oil exports fell 38% in April after tanker owners and customers withdrew several waiting vessels from the country’s waters as the reimposition of U.S. sanctions approached, data and documents show maritime transport.
Last month, the US Treasury Department said it would not renew the six-month license granted to Venezuela’s oil sector last year and gave companies until the end of May to liquidate transactions in course.
A total of 37 ships left Venezuelan ports in April. Exports averaged 545,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuel, below the peak of 873,500 bpd reached in March and the 703,000 bpd exported in the same month a year earlier. according to data from financial company LSEG based on tanker movements.
About six supertankers have left Venezuela empty in recent weeks after waiting for months to load crude at ports operated by national oil company PDVSA PDVSA.UL . Loading delays and customer concerns that the discount period granted by Washington would not be enough to complete sales were behind the departures, company data and documents show.
At least two of the tankers that left without cargo had been chartered by the state-controlled Polish refiner Orlen
PKN.WA and were to sail to Asia, according to data and documents.
The Polish government is investigating whether Orlen’s Switzerland-based business unit lost about $400 million in advance payments for cargoes of Venezuelan oil that the company did not receive.
Missed deliveries affected PDVSA’s exports to Asia in April, which fell 64% to 206,000 bpd. Shipments to the United States rose 34% to 238,000 bpd, driven by higher production and exports from joint ventures between the state-owned company and Chevron CVX.N , the data showed.
Venezuela also exported 236,000 metric tons of petroleum byproducts and petrochemicals, less than the 463,000 tons shipped in March, and slightly increased its fuel imports from 53,000 bpd the previous month to 57,000 bpd.
