HOUSTON: Venezuelan petroleum exports to the United States increased 9.5 percent in July from June, helped by more sales of Boscan heavy crude and diluted crude oil (DCO) made with naphtha, according to Reuters trade flows data.
State-run company PDVSA and its joint ventures sent 46 cargoes to its customers in the United States last month containing 728,450 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, according to the data, made with preliminary figures.
U.S. refining company Valero Energy Corp bought 13 cargoes, PDVSA’s subsidiary Citgo Petroleum unloaded 11 cargoes for its Lake Charles and Corpus Christi refineries, and oil firms, including Phillips 66, Chevron Corp and Motiva, also received Venezuelan crude.
Sales of DCO increased to 191,260 bpd in July, registering a big jump from the 52,000 bpd sent in January.
For its part, exports of heavy Boscan crude also recovered to an average of 36,225 bpd, within their normal range, after PDVSA solved problems to load large tankers from its Bajo Grande terminal in Western Venezuela, traders said.
PDVSA last month received bids to import some 75,000 bpd of light crude to mix it with its extra heavy output in the coming years, but in the meanwhile it is using naphtha as a diluent to formulate exportable DCO.
The switch to light crude from naphtha as diluent is not expected in the short term, the traders added, as the company has a contract to import naphtha through December.
The Venezuelan firm has bought from Royal Dutch Shell at least two 1-million-barrel cargoes of Nigerian crudes in recent months, but the oil has been stored at its terminal in the Caribbean island of Curacao.
