Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA resumed loading crude and fuel cargoes on Wednesday after suspending operations at terminals on Sunday due to a cyberattack, although most exports remain on hold as the US threatens to enforce a blockade on tankers under sanctions, according to three company sources, traders and shipping data.
Venezuela’s crude exports have fallen sharply from the more than 900,000 barrels per day it shipped in November since the US seized a sanctioned vessel a week ago.
Operators have kept loaded ships in Venezuelan waters for fear they would be seized if they set sail for China, the destination for most of Venezuela’s oil.
Even as ships resume loading at PDVSA’s terminals, it is unclear how many would sail into international waters. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a blockade of all oil tankers under sanctions sailing into or out of Venezuelan waters.
US oil major Chevron on Wednesday had two vessels loading cargoes bound for the US, according to one of the sources and shipping data.
Chevron has continued to ship Venezuelan crude since the seizure last week. The company is a joint-venture partner with PDVSA and has US authorisation to export oil from Venezuela despite sanctions on the OPEC member.
Not all vessels loading Venezuelan oil are under sanctions. Among the 80 oil tankers currently in Venezuelan waters, around 30 have been sanctioned, according to TankerTrackers.com.
An unsanctioned supertanker set sail this week in "dark mode," or with its tracking signal off, carrying 1.8 million barrels of heavy crude, after waiting for days to leave, according to a PDVSA internal document and monitoring data.
But more than nine million barrels of Venezuelan oil remain stuck on vessels in Venezuelan waters. Customers and shippers have demanded price discounts and contract changes from PDVSA to compensate them for the increased risk of shipping the country’s oil, traders and a company source said this week.
PDVSA said in a statement on Wednesday that oil exports and imports were back to normal, and its tanker fleet was navigating without interruptions.
Two ships without sanctions set sail on Wednesday carrying oil byproducts, but not crude, according to ship tracking data and PDVSA documents. The vessels are transporting methanol and petroleum coke, a residue of crude upgrading. Washington has not targeted oil byproducts or petrochemicals since it first imposed sanctions on Venezuela in 2019.
At least half a dozen oil tankers have turned around since last week to avoid approaching the Caribbean Sea, which is heavily patrolled by US vessels, the TankerTrackers.com data showed. The Trump administration has moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships to the region.
Venezuela called Trump’s blockade a "grotesque threat" in a statement on Tuesday night, saying he was violating international law, free commerce and the right of free navigation.
Illegitimate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has alleged that the US military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s oil resources. Venezuela holds the world’s largest crude reserves.
It is unclear how the US would enforce the blockade, and whether it would turn to the US Coast Guard to interdict vessels. The coast guard was involved in the seizure last week of the supertanker Skipper near Venezuela, which was the first US seizure of a Venezuelan oil cargo.
PDVSA had to isolate the operations of oilfields, refineries, ports and other facilities from its central system to resume work after the cyberattack, sources familiar with its operations said.
The state firm detected a ransomware attack days ago, and the antivirus software it used to try to fix the problem affected its entire administrative system, according to a company source.
In a ransomware attack, malicious software encrypts a victim’s files or locks their computer, often causing severe disruptions. Workers at terminals are making manual records of deliveries to avoid a longer suspension of exports, the sources said.
Also on Wednesday, Venezuela’s largest refinery, the 645,000 barrels per day Amuay refinery, restarted after a brief power outage, sources told Reuters.
The rising US-Venezuela tensions have also affected the South American country’s imports of heavy naphtha, which are needed to dilute its extra-heavy oil output. Russia’s naphtha exports to Venezuela are at risk due to the blockade, market sources said on Wednesday. Some tankers carrying Russian naphtha to Venezuela have turned back, shipping data showed.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Reuters staff; Editing by Simon Webb, Paul Simao, Rod Nickel)
