((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto)) by Marianna Parraga and Mircely Guanipa
Venezuela’s oil exports in June remained largely flat at around 760,000 barrels per day (bpd), with U.S. licenses supporting half of the month’s shipments to destinations in the United States and Europe, according to data and shipping documents.
In April, Washington decided not to renew a general license that had allowed Venezuela to freely export oil since last year. But it has since granted individual licenses to companies willing to do business with the South American country.
A total of 44 tankers left Venezuelan waters last month, carrying an average of 762,033 bpd of crude and fuel and 350,000 tons of oil by-products and petrochemicals, according to preliminary data based on tanker movements.
These figures are lower than those of May, during which the country exported 770,260 bpd of crude and fuel and 614,000 tonnes of by-products and petrochemicals.
Exports to the United States from U.S. oil producer Chevron CVX.N from joint ventures with state-owned PDVSA averaged 199,000 bpd, down slightly from 204,420 bpd shipped in May.
Deliveries to European refineries by joint ventures involving Italy’s Eni ENI.MI, Spain’s Repsol REP.MC and France’s Maurel & Prom
MAUP.PA reached 145,000 bpd in June, up from 113,000 bpd the previous month, the data showed.
Asia remained the main destination for Venezuela’s oil exports, with some 330,000 bpd in June.
Venezuela aims to increase its oil production to 1.23 million bpd by the end of the year, up from 876,000 bpd since the start of the year. But sustained oil exports of more than 600,000 bpd this year — higher than in the same period in 2023 — have led to bottlenecks in the country’s oil infrastructure, while slowly depleting available crude stocks, according to internal PDVSA documents.
PDVSA is slowly returning to using black fleet tankers to transport much of its exports to Asia and Cuba because those shipments are not covered by U.S. licenses and its own fleet is shrinking, according to data and ship monitoring services.
In June, Venezuela’s exports to Cuba averaged 33,700 bpd, matching May figures.
The OPEC country also imported some 55,000 bpd of diluents and fuels last month, down from 78,000 bpd in May, the data showed.
