Venezuelan oil exports have increased to 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January from 498,000 bpd in December, according to data reported by Reuters.
This rise follows the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and the ending of an oil blockade, which has let traders carry most exports.
Washington imposed an oil embargo on the U.S.-sanctioned country in December to pressure Maduro and seized seven tankers.
The blockade forced Venezuela’s state-run energy company PDVSA to cut output in early January as it led to the accumulation of more than 40 million barrels of crude oil and fuel in onshore tanks and vessels to not be exported.
Stocks, oil production, processing and shipments from the OPEC member have accelerated following the U.S. Treasury Department extending the first licenses to traders like Trafigura and Vito to begin exporting in January.
The U.S. has also regained its position as the main destination of Venezuela’s crude oil, with 284,000 bps exported there, and 220,000 shipped by Chevron, up from the 99,000 from December.
China was the top destination for Venezuelan oil up until December, with more than 70% of all exports.
In January, China received 156,000 bpd, last month, and there were no exports to political ally Cuba.
This follows the Treasury Department issuing a broad licence authorising business between U.S. companies and PDVSA to export, store, transport and refine Venezuelan oil, another step to untangle exports.
PDVSA's partners, including Chevron, are still waiting for individual licenses to expand operations.
The January volume is close to last year's 847,000 bpd average exports of crude and fuel, but pales in comparison to the country’s peak and was lower than the 867,000 bpd shipped in January last year.
Venezuela reached its peak of 3.5 million bpd in the 1990s. This number fell as oil production declined sharply following the 2007 expropriation of U.S. oil major assets and dropped even further during the global oil crash of 2014-2016, when prices fell by as much as 70%, before dropping again during the pandemic.
In recent years, there has been a slight turnaround with research from firm Wood Mackenzie suggesting that Venezuela has at least 241 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil.
Despite this, Wall Street remains sceptical that production will once again reach its peak.
“Since the 2006/07 nationalisation of western oil company interests by Hugo Chavez, lack of investment, mismanagement, neglect, have driven an oil production decline of 70% to just 1% of current global output,” analysts at Bernstein noted.
transport and refine Venezuelan oil, another step to untangle exports. PDVSA's partners, including Chevron, are still waiting for individual licenses to expand operations.
