Venezuela readies larger oil cargoes for export, targets India

Trading houses and buyers of Venezuelan oil have chartered the first very large crude carriers (VLCCs) to export from the South American country since a Caracas-Washington supply deal began, a move that will boost deliveries to India, according to four sources and shipping data.

The use of larger vessels, which can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil each, is expected to cut transportation costs for traders and buyers, alleviate a shortage of smaller tankers and accelerate the pace of deliveries starting next month, which could drain the millions of barrels stored in Venezuela more rapidly.

At least three VLCCs chartered by Vitol and Trafigura, the Nissos Kea, Nissos Kythnos and Arzanah, have been assigned March loading windows at Venezuela's main oil terminal, Jose, which is operated by state energy firm PDVSA and handles up to 70% of total crude exports. The tankers are bound for India, the sources said.

Another supertanker, Olympic Lion, was signaling Venezuela as its destination this week with the expected arrival in late March, according to LSEG ship tracking. The charterer was not immediately known.

Most of Venezuela's crude exports had moved since January in Panamaxes and Aframaxes, medium-sized tankers that can carry between 450,000 and 700,000 barrels of heavy oil each, to U.S. refineries. The oil has also moved on Suezmax vessels, which can carry up to 1 million barrels, to terminals in the Caribbean, where traders have been storing oil and shipping it to U.S. and European ports, according to vessel movement data.

BIGGER CARGOES, LOWER COSTS?

The larger cargoes could reduce costs for trading houses, which have complained that prices around $15 per barrel below Brent for Venezuela's Merey heavy crude agreed last month for initial purchases have become too expensive, amid the market's backwardation, in which shipments for later delivery are cheaper than near-term supplies.

U.S. oil major Chevron CVX.N sold its first cargo of Venezuelan crude to India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS since December 2023, according to shipping data and two sources. The Boscan crude cargo, expected to be shipped on the Ottoman Sincerity vessel, marks the first sale of the heavy oil in about six years.

Reliance also bought a 2-million-barrel cargo from Vitol for March loading, and is seeking direct purchases from PDVSA, separate sources said.

Chevron did not immediately comment on the cargoes, but said in its annual report on Tuesday it would continue delivering Venezuelan crude to the international market, which it had not previously disclosed, and to the U.S. Reliance did not respond outside office hours.

Trading houses Vitol and Trafigura have been exporting Venezuelan crude this year as part of a $2 billion deal between the U.S. and Venezuela, and have recently sold Venezuelan heavy crude cargoes to Indian refiners, including Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS, Bharat Petroleum Corp BPCL.NS and HPCL Mittal Energy (HMEL) as the Asian country tries to reduce Russian oil imports.

India was the third-largest buyer of Venezuelan crude before Washington imposed sanctions in 2019. The country's oil exports bounced to some 800,000 barrels per day in January as a U.S. oil blockade ended, but the rapid increase from some 500,000 bpd exported in December has left millions of barrels originally intended for U.S. and European buyers unsold in storage.

PDVSA and Vitol did not reply to requests for comment. Trafigura declined to comment.

MORE CARGOES TO THE U.S.

Chevron and U.S. refiners, including Valero EnergyVLO.N, Phillips 66 PSX.N and Citgo Petroleum are preparing to boost Venezuelan oil processing at their refineries, which is also expected to raise exports.

Chevron and some U.S. refiners have hired dozens of Aframaxes and Panamaxes, mostly under time-charter contracts for Venezuela, two of the sources said, which means they will exclusively transport Venezuelan oil in the contract period.

Valero, Phillips 66 and Citgo did not respond to requests for comment.

The trading houses' move to larger tankers should ease the search for medium-sized vessels to depart from the Caribbean, which many companies have struggled with, two sources said.

Trafigura, Vitol and Chevron have been exporting the OPEC country's oil under individual U.S. licenses, but in late January, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a general license broadly allowing oil exports.

The new authorization is expected to progressively expand the pool of buyers and the cargoes' destinations.

-Marianna Parraga, Shariq Khan and Arathy Somasekhar/Reuters