Struggling Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has launched tenders to purchase a total 4.2 million barrels of U.S. and Russian crude oil, which includes up to 3 million barrels of U.S. light sweet and 1.2 million barrels of Russian Urals, Reuters reports citing tender documents.
One tender is for five cargoes, 600,000 barrels each, of WTI or DSW crude blends. According to the documents, the company would also consider taking it in alternate increments of two 1-million-barrel cargoes of U.S. crude, plus another 600,000-barrel shipment.
The other tender is for two cargoes of 600,000 barrels of Urals crude each, both for January delivery. The crude will be processed at Venezuela’s Isla refinery, which has a capacity of 335,000 bpd, but Isla has been working at reduced utilization rates because of a shortage of light crude.
If the tenders are successful—which is a questionable event indeed as Venezuela, already cash-strapped, faces even more difficulties in light of U.S. sanctions—the light crude would probably be used to make fuel oil, which is an important export oil product for Venezuela.
AAN Staff
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