Lucia Kassai, Bloomberg News

HOUSTON
EnergiesNet.com 05 12 2022

Venezuelan oil production is set to get a boost from record inflows of Iranian crude used to improve the quality of the Latin American nation’s supplies. 

Iran has delivered 6.8 million barrels of oil to beleaguered Venezuela this year, a 48% increase over the full-year 2021 figure. Most of the Iranian shipments involved a lightweight type of oil known as condensate that the Venezuelans mix with the local sludgy crude to produce Merey 16, the country’s most-exported crude grade. 

State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA has been relying on Persian cargoes to boost domestic production and finance President Nicolas Maduro’s administration. Output that slumped to multi-year lows after the US ratcheted up sanctions in 2019 has been recovering since Iran strengthened ties with the regime. 

In March, Venezuela pumped 697,000 barrels a day, up 33% from a year earlier. Maduro has professed a goal of reaching 2 million barrels a day this year. Although the goal is seen as unrealistic, analysts expect that production this year will be higher than in 2021. 

The last cargoes arrived in the same week that Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji made a surprise visit to Caracas to sign energy deals between the two nations. The Islamic Republic has stepped up cooperation with Venezuela in the past couple of years and tossed a lifeline to Maduro’s regime. 

A vessel identified as Derya, carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian South Pars condensate, is currently anchored off the Venezuelan coast awaiting orders to discharge its load. The oil was shipped by Naftiran Intertrade Co. (NICO), a Swiss-based subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Co. that was hit with U.S. sanctions in 2008. 

bloomberg.com 05 11 2022