CARACAS: Sales of Venezuelan crude to the United States recovered to 788,742 barrels per day (bpd) in October, 8.9 percent more than the previous month amid larger sales of traditional grades and blends, according to Reuters trade flows data and state-run PDVSA imports and exports documents.
A total of 50 cargoes of Venezuelan crude were sold by PDVSA and its joint ventures to customers in the United States in October. PDVSA’s refining unit Citgo Petroleum received 11 cargoes at its Lake Charles and Corpus Christi refineries.
The increase was mainly driven by larger sales of heavy grades and blend crudes, while sales of diluted crude oil (DCO) made with heavy naphtha declined 39.5 percent to 210,645 bpd.
PDVSA delivered six cargoes of heavy Bachaquero and Boscan crudes to companies including Chevron Corp, Valero Energy and Lukoil, the data say.
The firm, which has not sold any product cargo on the open market since 2014 amid outages at its refineries, delivered a 240,000 barrel cargo of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) to Russia’s Rosneft and a 240,000 barrel cargo of jet fuel to PetroChina Co in the first week of October.
PDVSA last month imported at least three 450,000-500,000 barrel cargoes of heavy naphtha from firms including trading company Vitol SA, according to its internal trade report.
It also received two 300,000 barrel cargoes of gasoline blendstock and cat gas. Tanker Mid Osprey, coming from Germany, unloaded products at Cardon refinery in mid October, according to Reuters vessel tracking data.
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