(Reuters, Collin Eaton , 30.Apr.2019) — Oil prices rose on Tuesday above $73 a barrel but then eased off the session high after Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro said military leaders remained loyal to his government despite an attempted coup that could further threaten the OPEC producer’s oil exports. Prices rose […]
Category: Venezuela
Venezuela energy
Finnish Refiner Neste Hit By Venezuela Oil Sanctions
(Reuters, Tarmo Virki, 26.Apr.2019) — Finnish biofuel producer and oil refiner Neste reported a bigger than expected fall in quarterly profit on Friday, with U.S. sanctions against Venezuela having curbed crude oil supply to its Nynas joint venture. First-quarter core operating profit fell 6 percent to 378 million euros ($421 […]
Venezuela’s Oil Industry Implosion Reaches Chevron
(Oilprice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 25.Apr.2019) — Massive blackouts in Venezuela in March and April have drastically reduced oil production at Chevron’s biggest oil joint venture in the country, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing data that it had compiled from company sources. Chevron holds a 30-percent stake in Petropiar, a joint venture […]
LatAmNRG Venezuela Briefs: Oil Worker March, Maduro Denounces Citgo Grab
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 24.Apr.2019) — Heard on the street and LatAmNRG briefs related to a planned oil and gas sector march slated for 1 May 2019 in Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro denouncing what he calls an illegal appropriation of Citgo by the Venezuelan opposition under the watchful gaze […]
Reuters Corrects Story Saying Venezuela Is Avoiding U.S. Sanctions by Funneling Oil Sales Through Russia
(The Moscow Times, 24.Apr.2019) — Reuters has corrected a story it published on April 18 saying Venezuela is funneling cash flow from oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft to evade U.S. sanctions after Rosneft threatened to ban the international news agency from operating in Russia. The story, datelined […]
Venezuela’s April Crude Exports Rise To 955,000 b/d After Blackouts
(S&P Global Platts, 24.Apr.2019) — Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA is set to export 955,000 b/d of crude in April, up from 843,000 b/d in March, when several blackouts crippled export infrastructure, according to the company’s monthly export plan. Asian refiners are taking 786,000 b/d, or 82% of April’s shipments, up from […]
PDVSA Says Morichal Electric Generation Plant Back In Service
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 24.Apr.2019) — PDVSA’s Carabobo Division of the Hugo Chávez Orinoco Oil Belt, or Faja, started up the TG200 turbogenerator at the Morichal Electric Generation Plant, the state oil company announced 24 April 2019 in an official statement. The plant will incorporate 10 megawatts (MW) of […]
PDVSA Says Oilfield Power Generator Activated After Blackouts
(Reuters, 24.Apr.2019) — Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA on Wednesday said it had activated a power generator that would allow for an increase in crude oil output, after a string of nationwide blackouts disrupted operations in the country’s heavy-crude oil Orinoco belt. The company said in a statement the generator […]
Venezuela Imports Crude For The First Time In Five Years
(Bloomberg, Lucia Kassai, 24.Apr.2019) — Oil production in Venezuela has dipped so low that the owner of the world’s largest reserves is importing crude for the first time in five years. The nation’s output fell below 1 million barrels a day to a 16-year low in March, amid rolling blackouts […]
Venezuela Seeks To Collect Some Oil Payments Via Rosneft
(Reuters, 19.Apr.2019) — The cash-strapped government is becoming increasingly reliant on the Kremlin. Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has asked at least two of its clients to make payments for Venezuelan oil via Russian state energy giant Rosneft, as it comes under pressure from U.S. sanctions, according to a PDVSA […]
Lee: Dragon Gas Deal Dead
(Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, Yvonne Webb, 19.Apr.2019) — Deputy political leader of the United National Congress, Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee, has said the Dragon gas deal between TT and Venezuela is dead and not just at a “standstill,” as claimed by Energy Minister Franklin Khan. Lee said it is now […]
Indian Refiners Turn To OPEC, Mexico, U.S. To Make Up Iran Oil Gap
(Reuters, 18.Apr.2019) — All four Indian state-owned refiners that buy Iranian oil are confident of securing additional barrels from other producers, officials from the companies told Reuters. Indian refiners are increasing their planned purchases from OPEC nations, Mexico and the United States to make up for any loss of Iranian […]
Exclusive: Venezuela Skirts U.S. Sanctions By Funneling Oil Sales Via Russia
(Reuters, Marianna Parraga, 18.Apr.2019) — President Nicolas Maduro is funneling cashflow from Venezuelan oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft as he seeks to evade U.S. sanctions designed to oust him from power, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters. The sales are the latest sign of the […]
Repsol Cuts Swap For Venezuelan Oil Under U.S. Pressure
(Reuters, Collin Eaton and Marianna Parraga, 17.Apr.2019) — Spain’s Repsol suspended its swaps of refining products for crude with Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA, people familiar with the matter said, as U.S. officials weighed penalties for foreign firms doing business with Venezuela. The Spanish oil company has been swapping fuel […]
This New Oil Hotspot Is Replacing Venezuelan Crude
(Oilprice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 15.Apr.2019) — The U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry have tightened the global heavy to medium crude oil market, sending oil buyers scrambling for alternatives to the heavy Venezuelan oil. Refiners in the United States and Europe have started to replace Venezuela’s oil with some of […]
Fuel-Starved Haiti In Crisis As Venezuela Deal Dies
(Oilprice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 15.Apr.2019) — The poorest nation in the Western hemisphere has seen its fuel supply increasingly challenged since a program designed by Venezuela to supply fuel and gain influence in the Caribbean collapsed last year amid the raging Venezuelan crisis. Haiti had received almost 70 percent of […]
Chevron To Gain Anadarko’s Offshore Guyana Oil Assets After Takeover
(Stabroek News, 14.Apr.2019) — Guyana could see oil exploration activity in the ultra-deepwater region picking up pace in the near future with United States oil giant Chevron set to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp, which holds an exploration licence for the Roraima Block offshore Guyana. As part of its crude and […]
Lights Dimming On Big Oil In Venezuela
(Argus, Patricia Garip, 10.Apr.2019) — Darkness has befallen Venezuela in more than one sense, and incumbent oil companies are scrambling for a ray of light. It was hard enough for western oil companies to operate in Venezuela before the lights went out in March. Now it is nearing impossible, at […]
Texas’ Pete Olson Calls For Maduro To Release Citgo 6
(The Katy News, 8.Apr.2019) — Rep. Pete Olson (TX-22) issued the following statement calling on the Maduro regime to release the six Citgo executives, five of whom are Texans, who have been detained in Venezuela since November 2017: “The CITGO 6 are Texas and Louisiana residents who have been detained […]
New U.S. Sanctions Seek To Block Venezuelan Oil Shipments To Cuba
(NYT, Annie Karni and Nicholas Casey, 5.Apr.2019) — The Trump administration announced on Friday its latest round of economic sanctions against the government of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, this time aimed at oil shipments between Venezuela and Cuba, a country that the administration has accused of propping up Mr. […]
Venezuela flaring nearly 2 Bcf/d of gas as oil production falls
CARACAS, VENEZUELA (Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 4.Apr.2019, Words: 280) — Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves and one of Latin America’s larger oil producers, is flaring around 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas associated with the production of the country’s bread-and-butter commodity, […]
Venezuela Blackouts Cut Oil Output by Half During March
(Bloomberg Fabiola Zerpa, 4.Apr.2019) — Power failures that plunged Venezuela into darkness for much of March also briefly slashed the country’s crude production by half, according to people familiar with the situation. Rolling blackouts across much of the country that started on March 7 paralyzed most of the country’s oil […]
Turkish Ship Company Is Transporting Venezuelan Crude
(Argus, 4.Apr.2019) — Turkey-based Gungen is one of a handful of shipowners that continues to transport Venezuelan crude oil after the US levied sanctions on the South American country’s state-owned oil company PdV in January. Most major oil tanker operators have turned away from Venezuelan crude because of legal, safety […]
Citgo Reports Higher Exports, Crude Throughputs
(Argus, 1.Apr.2019) — Citgo increased fuel exports and domestic crude processing last year, the company said in rare public guidance on the Venezuelan-controlled independent refiner’s operations. The refiner reported crude throughputs of 716,000 b/d for 2018, a 9.1pc increase from the 656,333 b/d of crude processed in 2017, the company […]
LatAmNRG Q&A Series With Refinitiv’s Carl Larry
(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 31.Mar.2019) — As part of Energy Analytics Institute’s ongoing coverage of the Latin America and Caribbean energy sectors from conventionals, unconventionals to renewables, Houston-based Refinitiv Market Development Manager Carl Larry weighs in on Peru LNG and issues it faces from increasing US natural gas volumes […]
OPEC Releases MOMR With Data Thru Feb. 2019
(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 14.Mar.2019) — OPEC announced publication of its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) as of 14 March 2019 with details on producers in Latin America and the Caribbean from Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. *** © Energy Analytics Institute (EAI)