Venezuela's oil exports fell almost 20 per cent to some 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April, the lowest level in nine months, as cargo cancellations to US-based producer Chevron forced ships to return and left some ports empty, ship tracking data and documents showed.
Venezuela's state-run company PDVSA last month suspended most of the loading windows it had assigned to Chevron and ordered the return of some oil cargoes bound for the US amid payment uncertainty related to the enforcement of US sanctions.
The measures cut Chevron short of a May 27 deadline the US Treasury Department had set to wind down oil operations and exports from the OPEC country, which has been under US energy sanctions since 2019.
A total of 32 vessels departed from Venezuelan waters last month, carrying an average of 698,767 bpd of crude and fuel and 357,000 tonnes of oil byproducts and petrochemicals, according to LSEG vessel monitoring data.
The main destination of Venezuela's oil exports was China with some 428,000 bpd, followed by the US with 138,000 bpd and India with 64,200 bpd, the data and documents showed.
Chevron's exports of Venezuelan crude to the US plummeted 69 per cent to some 66,000 bpd due to PDVSA's measures.
However, other customers of the state company, including France's Maurel Prom, US Global Oil Terminals and India's Reliance increased their intake of Venezuelan crude and byproducts ahead of the May 27 deadline.
As part of oil swaps with some of those companies, Venezuela's imports of heavy naphtha rose to some 94,000 bpd in April, from 82,000 bpd in March, allowing PDVSA to increase storage of much-needed diluents for its extra heavy crudes.
PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. Venezuela's Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez this month traveled to China to discuss oil businesses.
The company between late March and early April halted one of its main crude upgraders, Petropiar, operated along with Chevron, to modify the facility's output, one of its strategies to refine more domestically, according to one of the documents.
Also in April PDVSA inaugurated loading of a new crude grade for export, Blend 22, with the first cargo bound for the US.
Venezuela's government has rejected President Donald Trump's hardening of sanctions on the South American country, saying the measures amount to an "economic war."
(Reporting by Reuters staff; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
