Crude oil stocks at Venezuela’s Jose export terminal surged to their highest since August as foreign buyers shied away from state oil company PDVSA ahead of the US sanctions deadline, Reuters reported. According to the report, crude inventories at Jose stood at 11.8 million barrels as of October 24, more than double the 5.6 million barrels a month earlier. Analysts estimated that the terminal now has just 3 million barrels of available storage space. This could, in turn, force PDVSA to slash crude output again.
Washington previously gave a deadline to some companies that still trade with PDVSA to wind down business relationships with the state oil company. These companies include Italy’s Eni, Spain’s Repsol, and Thailand’s Tipco Asphalt. Tanker tracking data showed only one vessel is scheduled to load at the Jose terminal. The loading is for 1 million barrels of Merey crude grade that is expected to go into Tipco.
Last month, Venezuela’s crude exports jumped amid rushed purchases ahead of the deadline, allowing PDVSA to increase crude blending and upgrading at the Petropiar and Sinovensa plants at Jose. Petropiar, PDVSA’s joint venture with Chevron, produced 115,000 bpd of Merey as of Saturday, relatively steady from two weeks earlier. Meanwhile, Merey production at Sinovensa, PDVSA’s JV with China’s CNPC, fell from 160,000 bpd to 78,000 bpd over the same period.
