A Panamax tanker loaded with Boscan-grade crude will leave Venezuela’s Bajo Grande port in Zulia state this weekend, bound for a US Gulf coast refinery, according to sources familiar with the plan.
By Argus Media – Carlos Camacho
Dec 28, 2022
If the cargo does make the journey it would be the first Venezuela-to-US cargo of crude since 2018, when US sanctions on the country were tightened. It would be taking advantage of a recent loosening of the terms which allows US oil major Chevron to resume some of its operations there.
Another cargo of crude is also expected to leave the port of Jose in eastern Venezuela in about two weeks for the US Gulf coast, according to a source.
Venezuelan officials are anxious to send a symbolic message with a cargo before the new year, while Chevron appears less concerned with rushing any shipments. Earlier in the month expectations were for a higher quality cargo of 16° Merey crude. Boscan is closer in quality to asphalt, so it would likely need to go to a US refinery with coking capacity, like Chevron’s Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery.
Under the revised sanctions, Chevron and state-owned PdV were able to resume production work earlier this month at the Petroboscan joint venture. According to an internal PdV report, Petroboscan went from no production since at least June because of a lack of storage to 9,489 b/d on 21 December, and a brief spike to 17,268 b/d on 23 December.
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