(Bloomberg, 30.Mar.2020) — The Kremlin’s sudden shift of ownership of multi-billion-dollar oil projects in Venezuela shields oil giant Rosneft PJSC from further U.S. sanctions but keeps Moscow firmly behind embattled President Nicolas Maduro amid a wider stand-off with Washington. “Russia is not walking away from Maduro and will seek to […]
Category: Venezuela
Venezuela energy
Venezuela’s Oil Output Falls To Five-month Low
(Reuters, 30.Mar.2020) — Venezuela’s crude production ended last week at around 670,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to documents seen by Reuters and two people with access to output data, the lowest level in five months amid U.S. sanctions and falling global demand. The Orinoco oil belt, Venezuela’s largest producing […]
Rosneft’s Venezuelan Oil Loads Cancelled – Data
(Reuters, 28.Mar.2020) — Three large crude carriers (VLCCs) chartered by units of Russian oil major Rosneft to transport Venezuelan oil left Caribbean waters empty on Saturday after the cargoes were cancelled due to sanctions, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and a document from Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA. The vessels […]
Rosneft To Sell Venezuela Operations To Russian Gov’t
(S&P Global Platts, 28.Mar.2020) — Russia’s largest crude producer Rosneft said Saturday it is ceasing operations in Venezuela and selling all assets related to activities there. “Today [Saturday], Rosneft entered into an agreement with a company 100%-owned by the Russian government on the sale of shares and termination of its […]
Rosneft Sells Its Venezuelan Assets
(Rosneft, 28.Mar.2020) — Rosneft announces the termination of its operations in Venezuela and the disposal of its assets, related to operating in Venezuela. Today Rosneft concluded an agreement with the company 100% owned by the Government of Russian Federation, to sell all of its interest and cease participation in its […]
Falling LatAam Fuel Demand Leaves Hurt US Refiners
(Reuters, 27.Mar.2020) — Demand for refined products in Latin America is quickly drying up as the coronavirus pandemic worsens, leaving U.S. refiners without their primary export destination as the virus spreads. The crisis has nearly shut down worldwide air travel and is destroying fuel demand, which could fall by 15% […]
Citgo Foundation To Support Covid-19 Efforts In Venezuela
(Citgo, 26.Mar.2020) — The SimĂłn BolĂvar Foundation Inc. (SBF), the non-profit, private foundation of Citgo Petroleum Corporation, is launching a special round of its small grants program to help alleviate the damaging effects of the Covid-19 crisis in Venezuela. Non-profit organizations working in Venezuela are critical right now, given the […]
Fuel Trickling Into Venezuela, Oil Loading
(Argus, 24.Mar.2020) — Some gasoline is trickling into Venezuela, while a few crude cargoes are still getting out, but the volumes and revenue are dwarfed by the US-sanctioned country’s dire need for fuel and revenue to check the galloping coronavirus. According to shipping sources inside and outside Venezuela, current port […]
LatAm NRG Producers Sweat To Cover Costs
(Reuters, 24.Mar.2020) — A price war between the world’s oil powerhouses is leaving many producers in Latin American struggling to cover production costs, boosting chances of output cuts and investment delays in coming months. Global oil price benchmarks have had their steepest declines in decades in a perfect storm of […]
Libre Abordo To Take Up To 15mn Bbls Of Venezuelan Oil
(Reuters, 24.Mar.2020) — Mexico’s Libre Abordo and a related company plan to take some 15 million barrels of Venezuelan crude as part of a first oil-for-food contract with President Nicolas Maduro’s government, the company told Reuters on Tuesday. Since it received its first cargo of Venezuelan oil in late 2019 […]
US Targets Maduro Regime With Fresh Charges
(WSJ, 22.Mar.2020) — The U.S. quietly unsealed criminal cases against two former officials at Venezuela’s state oil monopoly this month as part of what American officials say is a new round of charges and sanctions against a Maduro government they accuse of systemic corruption, narcotrafficking and stealing billions of dollars […]
Curacao Seizes PDVSA Oil Terminal In Dutch Caribbean
(Reuters, 20.Mar.2020) — Curacao state-owned oil refinery Refineria di Korsou (RdK) on Friday seized an oil storage terminal on the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire over a payment dispute with Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA oil firm, a RdK official said. Curacao will seek Dutch court approvals to sell Bonaire Petroleum Corp […]
Latin America’s Spot Oil Sales Hit By Low Prices
(Reuters, 20.Mar.2020) — Spot sales of Latin America’s heavy crudes mostly dried up this week amid a demand contraction and steep slump in oil prices that left some heavy grades below the $10-per-barrel level, traders from producing companies told Reuters on Friday. Latin American crude prices have fallen by around […]
US Calls For Humanitarian Release Of Citgo 6
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 19.Mar.2020) — The US calls for humanitarian release of wrongfully detained Americans in Venezuela. © Energy Analytics Institute (EAI). All Rights Reserved. ***
Economic Fallout From Virus Felt In Venezuela
(ABC News, 16.Mar.2020) — Nicolás Maduro’s government on Monday banned gasoline sales in two states as part of a broader lock-down to stem panic buying by Venezuelans accustomed to hoarding basic goods whenever there’s a hint of turmoil. But his orders, which explicitly prohibit lines outside gas stations, were largely […]
Vitol Negotiates Venezuela Oil Purchase
(Oilprice.com, 13.Mar.2020) — The largest independent oil trader in the world, Vitol Group, is discussing the purchase of Venezuelan crude oil from a Mexican firm that had received the crude in exchange for aid, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing emails and documents that it has reviewed. Vitol hasn’t traded […]
Maduro Suggests OPEC, OPEC+ Discuss Oil Market
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 12.Mar.2020) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has suggested that members of OPEC and OPEC+ return to discussions about balancing the oil market. “Let us seek agreements to provide short-term, medium-term and long-term solutions that will restore the oil markets to an equilibrium point,” state oil […]
Nynas Applies For Company Reorganization
(Nynas, 12.Mar.2019) — Nynas AB (publ) has today filed for company reorganisation at Södertörn’s District Court. Nynas loans have not been extended by the banks. Thus, Nynas cannot pay due debts forcing the company to apply for a reorganisation of the company. “Despite loyal customers and dedicated work by our […]
PDVSA Partners Fret Over Managerial Vacuum
(Argus, 12.Mar.2020) — A presidential commission tasked with reorganizing Venezuela’s state-owned PdV is sowing confusion among the oil company’s joint venture partners over who is running the firm after chief executive Manuel Quevedo was effectively nudged out. “It is unclear who we are supposed to deal with now when discussing […]
Venezuela Discussing Oil Prices With OPEC, Russia
(TASS, 12.Mar.2020) — Venezuelan authorities are discussing the situation with the oil price collapse with OPEC and Russia, President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday at a press conference broadcasted in Twitter. “We contacted our partners in OPEC, such our partners as Russia, with oil producing countries, to undertake steps in […]
Pipeline Blast Halts PetroPiar
(Argus, 10.Mar.2020) — Venezuelan state-owned PdV’s PetroPiar joint venture with Chevron suspended upgrading operations following a pipeline explosion early today, three oil workers at the facility tell Argus. The plant has since resumed partial operations and is slowly ramping back up to an unspecified level. Sulfur and hydrogen processing units […]
Venezuela Offers Discounts As Prices Collapse
(Reuters, 10.Mar.2020) — Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA is this week offering discounts of up to $23 per barrel on its flagship crude, traders said, as a collapse in global oil prices puts more pressure on the state-run firm, already reeling from tightening U.S. sanctions. Petroleos de Venezuela had already been […]
Venezuela Cause Drifting Off International Agenda
(Argus, 10.Mar.2020) — Venezuela’s US-backed opposition is scrambling to stay relevant at home and abroad as the US and other foreign patrons turn inward to focus on slowing the spread of coronavirus and mitigating the economic fallout of an oil price collapse. In a bid to reinvigorate his movement, Juan […]
Latin America Oil Plays Rocked By Oil Price Rout
(Argus, 9.Mar.2020) — Latin America’s bold plans to tap deepwater, unconventional and heavy oil reserves — already under pressure by coronavirus in key demand markets — face an even greater challenge from this week’s oil price crash. Ice Brent crude futures prices plunged by more than 20pc today to a […]
PdV Names New Shipping Head As Arrests Mount
(Argus, 9.Mar.2020) — Venezuelan state-owned PdV named a new head of its shipping unit following 38 arrests over alleged fuel theft. PdV Marina’s new president is Cesar Vladimir Romero Salazar, a navy captain who also heads the national aquatics institute INEA. The arrests were the latest manifestation of a purge […]
Mariela Poleo To Head SimĂłn BolĂvar Foundation
(Citgo, 8.Mar.2020) — Citgo Petroleum Corporation announced the appointment of Mariela Poleo as President of the SimĂłn BolĂvar Foundation (SBF), the company’s non-profit, private foundation dedicated to catalyzing organizations and resources to meet the humanitarian needs of Venezuelans and Venezuelan refugees. As president, she will oversee all facets of SBF, […]
Venezuela Moves To Arrest Numerous Oil Workers
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 7.Mar.2020) — Venezuela’s government has arrested numerous oil sector workers for presumably providing confidential information to the US government as well as participating in fuel smuggling activities, according to state oil company PDVSA. The arrested persons include the following: On 28 February 2020, two managers […]
New Commission To Safeguard PDVSA’s Interest
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 7.Mar.2020) — Venezuela has established a new Presidential Commission which aims to defend and safeguard the interest of state oil company PetrĂłleos de Venezuela Sociedad AnĂłnima (PDVSA). Part of the agenda of the Venezuelan government, with the new commission, is to advance the revolutionary restructuring […]
Venezuela Detains Over 30 PDVSA Workers
(Reuters, 7.Mar.2020) — At least 38 workers from Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela’s, including the president of maritime subsidiary PDV Marina, were detained on accusations of trafficking fuel, Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on Saturday, describing the accusations as “treason.” The move comes just days after other […]
Is 2020 The Year For Regime Change In Venezuela?
(FT, 7.Mar.2020) — There have been enough false dawns in Venezuela to deter any confident predictions but a series of developments — all energy related — suggest that 2020 could be the year when regime change might actually occur and the country could begin to resume its role at the […]
US Eying Not Renewing Chevron’s Venezuela Waiver
(Reuters, 6.Mar.2020) — The U.S. government is preparing to impose new measures as soon as next week to stifle Venezuela’s oil exports, including a move not to renew Chevron Corp’s license to do business with state-run company PDVSA, sources familiar with the matter said. The United States imposed harsh sanctions […]
OPEC Statutes Roots Point To Caracas
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 2.Mar.2020) — In Caracas, and by unanimous decision of the founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) under the leadership and vision of the Venezuelan Juan Pablo PĂ©rez Alfonso, the organization adopted its statute at its second meeting held in January 1961. […]
Venezuela Arrests Officials For Giving US Oil Data
(AFP, 2.Mar.2020) — Venezuela said Monday it had arrested two officials from state oil company PDVSA for providing the US with “strategic and sensitive” details of its sanctions-hit oil operations. Alfredo Chirinos, the company’s special operations chief, and Aryenis Torrealba, PDVSA’s general manager of crude operations, were arrested on Friday, […]
Venezuela’s Oil Exports Rose Ahead Of Wind-down Date
(Reuters, 2.Mar.2020) — Venezuela’s oil exports rose 9% in February from the previous month, as some buyers rushed to take cargoes ahead of the expiration of a wind-down period as part of new U.S. sanctions on PDVSA and its trade partners, data from the state-run firm and Refinitiv Eikon showed. […]
Venezuela’s Maduro Announces PDVSA Shake Up
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 29.Feb.2020) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro revealed key executive changes within state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in an announcement published in the country’s Official Gaceta dated 28 February 2020. The new appointments approved by the president include: — Erwin Enrique Hernández Hernández, named […]
Petroboscán Advancing With Materials Warehouse
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 29.Feb.2020) — The Petroboscán joint venture, which partners Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation (CVP) and Chevron Corp., is advancing with a management and optimization project related to a materials warehouse in the Boscán field, located in the municipality of La Cañada de Urdaneta in Zulia state. Activities […]
Opinion: Can Venezuela’s Oil Sector Ever Recover?
(IAD, 28.Feb.2020) — At the dawn of the 1920s, Venezuela had drilled its first oil wells and was just two years away from the eruption of almost a million barrels of oil from the Barroso No. 2 well on the shores of Lake Maracaibo — an event that would amplify […]
Citgo Says Gerd Knutsen Released From Seizure
(Citgo, 28.Feb.2020) — Citgo Petroleum Corporation confirms that the Gerd Knutsen and its crew have safely reached international waters, and that the Company intends to pursue the Maduro regime, and any entities that may have assisted it, for unlawful seizure of its cargo. BACKGROUND ON CITGO GERD KNUTSEN SEIZURE Citgo […]
Venezuela Committee Asks VPs To Offer Resignations
(Reuters, 22.Feb.2020) — Members of a committee tasked with overhauling Venezuelan state oil firm PetrĂłleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, asked the company’s vice presidents on Friday to offer their resignations, three sources said. The committee could accept the resignations or maintain those officials in their posts, according to one […]
BoquerĂłn JV Advances With Gas Lift Pilot
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 22.Feb.2020) — The BoquerĂłn joint venture, comprised of state oil company PetrĂłleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA) and Russian oil company Rosneft, is incorporating artificial gas lift technological with aim at increasing its production of light crude oil which is currently produced by natural flow. Use […]
Trump Wants Pressure Raised On Maduro
(Bloomberg, 21.Feb.2020) — President Donald Trump is frustrated that pressure is building too slowly on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and is still considering military options in the country, including a naval blockade, a senior administration official said. The U.S. has put several companies that continue to do business in Venezuela […]
PetroMonagas Incorporates Turbo Generator
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 20.Feb.2020) — In order to generate its own electricity, the PetroMonagas joint venture incorporated use of an electric turbo generator (TG2) at its upgrader at the JosĂ© Antonio Anzoátegui Industrial Complex located in the northern part of Anzoátegui state. With incorporation of the generator, the […]
Venezuela Promises Another Oil Revival
(Argus, 20.Feb.2020) — Venezuela’s embattled government is vowing to overhaul the national oil industry one day after the US administration sanctioned the Russian trading company that channels most Venezuelan crude to market. In his latest national address late yesterday, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro issued an energy emergency decree and created […]
Maduro Taps VP To ‘Restructure’ Oil Sector
(Reuters, 19.Feb.2020) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday he would create a presidential commission to restructure the country’s beleaguered oil industry, which will be led by Vice President for the Economy Tareck El Aissami. The announcement came a day after the United States sanctioned Rosneft Trading, a unit […]
Maduro Shakes Up PDVSA Amid Oil Sector Emergency
(Bloomberg, 19.Feb.2020) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro declared an “energy emergency” as he announced a commission to revamp state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, redoubling efforts to shore up the nation’s crumbling oil industry. Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami will lead the commission, which will focus on boosting […]
Rosneft Sanctions Raise Threats For Cos In Venezuela
(Reuters, 19.Feb.2020) — Washington’s move this week to sanction a trading unit of Russian oil giant Rosneft for its ties with Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA escalated threats facing non-U.S. firms and will likely spur “overcompliance” by companies, analysts and industry sources said. The U.S. government on Tuesday blacklisted Rosneft Trading, SA, […]
Latest Rosneft Sanctions Raise Risks For Others
(Reuters, 19.Feb.2020) — Washington’s move this week to sanction a trading unit of Russian oil giant Rosneft for its ties with Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA escalated threats facing non-U.S. firms and will likely spur “overcompliance” by companies, analysts and industry sources said. The U.S. government on Tuesday blacklisted Rosneft Trading, SA, […]
Maduro’s PDVSA Shake Up Amid Oil Emergency
(Bloomberg, 19.Feb.2020) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro declared an “energy emergency” as he announced a commission to revamp state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, redoubling efforts to shore up the nation’s crumbling oil industry. Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami will lead the commission, which will focus on boosting […]
Maduro Accused Of “Disappearing” US Oilmen
(AP, 19.Feb.2020) — Family members of six American oil executives jailed in Venezuela are accusing Nicolas Maduro’s government of “forced disappearance” after the men were inexplicably missing for the scheduled start of their trial on Wednesday. Veronica Vadell said that lawyers for her father, Tomeu Vadell, and the five other […]
Could Rosneft Sanctions Signal End To Chevron’s Venezuela Waiver?
(S&P Global Platts, 18.Feb.2020) — The Trump administration’s decision to sanction Rosneft’s trading arm Tuesday may be a sign that Chevron’s waiver allowing it to continue its work in Venezuela may soon expire, analysts said. The Rosneft sanctions may also bolster the case for the Chevron waiver to be extended […]