Venezuelan oil exports drop by 38% in April

Venezuelan oil exports experienced a significant drop of 38 per cent in April, as tanker owners and clients withdrew several vessels awaiting loading from the country’s waters in anticipation of the reimplementation of US sanctions, according to Reuters citing shipping data and documents.

Last month, the US Treasury Department announced the non-renewal of a six-month license granted to Venezuela’s oil sector the previous year, giving companies until the end of May to conclude pending transactions.

In April, a total of 37 vessels departed from Venezuelan ports, with exports averaging 545,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuel.

This figure is lower than the peak of 873,500 bpd shipped in March and the 703,000 bpd exported in the same month a year earlier, according to data from financial firm LSEG, based on tanker movements.

Approximately six supertankers departed Venezuela empty in recent weeks after enduring months of waiting to load crude at ports managed by the state-owned oil company PDVSA. Loading delays and concerns among customers that the wind-down period granted by Washington would not suffice to finalise the sales were cited as reasons for these departures, according to the data and company documents.

At least two of the tankers that left without loading had been chartered by the Polish state-controlled refiner Orlen and were expected to sail to Asia, as indicated by the data and documents.

The Polish government is currently investigating the loss of approximately $400 million incurred by Orlen’s Switzerland-based trading unit in prepayments for Venezuelan oil cargoes that the company did not receive.