Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA has been unable to ship oil cargoes to Asia for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, as the U.S. “oil quarantine” of Venezuela continues, according to shipping data cited by Reuters.
U.S. supermajor Chevron resumed exports to the United States on Monday, according to the data, after a few days of suspended shipments during which U.S. forces extracted Nicolas Maduro and flew him to New York to stand trial in drug-trafficking charges.
Chevron is the only Western oil company currently authorized by the U.S. Treasury to operate in Venezuela. Chevron ships the crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Venezuelan shipments to Asia, however, are at a standstill, and China, the top oil customer of Venezuela, is getting lower volumes of crude.
In fact, Chinese oil buyers have reduced their intake of Venezuelan oil as the discount between Brent and the country’s flagship Merey crude shrank from $15 per barrel last month to $13 per barrel now, Bloomberg reported today, citing unnamed sources.
The price rise of Venezuelan oil follows the U.S. naval blockade that has disrupted tanker traffic to and from Venezuela, and that is not about to be lifted anytime soon, as stated earlier this week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The United States will keep what it calls an oil quarantine on Venezuela. According Rubio, this quarantine is as far as the U.S. “running Venezuela” would go.
“We have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met,” Rubio told ABC in an interview on Sunday.
“So that leverage remains, that leverage is ongoing, and we expect that it’s going to lead to results here. We’re hope so – hopeful that it does – positive results for the people of Venezuela, but ultimately, most importantly, for us in the national interest of the United States,” the U.S. Secretary of State said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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