At least two oil tankers have made their way to Venezuela in recent days and others are navigating towards the country, a sign of state-run PDVSA's effort to expand floating storage and keep selling crude even as a US blockade has reduced exports to a minimum.
US President Donald Trump this month announced a blockade of all sanctioned vessels going in or out of Venezuelan waters as part of a strategy to pressure illegitimate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The US move has cut oil exports this month to about half of their November level.
The US has seized two fully loaded cargoes of Venezuelan oil and its ships are patrolling the Caribbean Sea. The pressure has scared many vessel owners, prompting re-routings and u-turns.
Only a fraction of ships have kept on course to the OPEC country. Some tanker owners have insisted.
At least two ships under sanctions have arrived in Venezuela over the last few days and two more that are not under sanctions are approaching its coast, according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.
As part of swaps and arrangements made since the country was first placed under US energy sanctions in 2019, Maduro's administration pays for a long list of purchases and services with oil, including debt service to China.
The two vessels approaching Venezuela are part of a fleet used by China and Venezuela to pay debt service with crude bound for Chinese ports.
It was unclear whether China will press for a US waiver to secure delivery of those cargoes. PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment.
Venezuela's oil ministry and Maduro have said oil exports will continue. PDVSA has been negotiating price discounts and contract changes with customers this month to avoid cargo returns or crude production cut-backs.
But many buyers are growing impatient as there are no real alternatives to get oil cargoes out of the country, even in non-sanctioned tankers, company sources said.
A cyberattack forced PDVSA to shut down its centralised administrative system this month.
The company is now delivering cargoes at its ports at a slower pace, both to fulfil loading windows for export and to store crude and fuel in ships, expanding its storage capacity.
The only loaded vessels departing are Chevron's tankers, which continue setting sail for the US under Washington's authorisation.
Small ships carrying oil byproducts and petrochemicals are also departing, shipping data and PDVSA documents showed.
A similar situation in 2020, when Washington ramped up pressure on Maduro by imposing sanctions on PDVSA's main trading partners, forced the country to switch to little-known intermediaries to keep selling its oil to Chinese buyers.
Those US measures triggered oil output cuts, oilfield shutdowns and severe scarcity of motor fuel. It took Venezuela years to reach one million barrels per day (bpd) of output again, recover some refining capacity and stabilise exports.
As of this week, almost two dozen tankers were visible from shore near the Jose port waiting for loading windows or for departure instructions.
The volume of oil stuck in undeparted tankers increased to some 16 million barrels, from 11 million barrels in mid-December, according to the data and documents.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Reuters; Editing by David Gregorio)
