January's PDVSA output at 1 million barrels per day
Venezuela's crude oil production would have surpassed 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, according to numbers reported by OPEC—citing the local Ministry of Hydrocarbons.
This would be the first time that Venezuela reaches the million-barrel milestone since 2019, when the Trump administration introduced sanctions banning all transactions with PDVSA, the state-owned oil company.
According to PDVSA internal documents, the five joint ventures that produced the most crude oil in January were:
Petropiar (Chevron): 108,000 bpd.
Petrolera Sinovensa (China National Petroleum Corp): 106,000 bpd.
Petroboscan (Chevron): 105,000 bpd.
Punta de Mata (PDVSA "esfuerzo propio"): 88,000 bpd.
Petromonagas (Petromost, Rosneft’s substitute): 86,000 bpd.
OPEC also reports numbers based on “secondary sources” which diverge considerably. Instead of 1,031,000 bpd, they claim that the output was 892,000 bpd. The difference is mainly down to whether sources include imported diluents.
Venezuela's vast reserves are in large part extra heavy crudes, like bitumen, especially in the Orinoco Oil Belt. Operators need to mix them with diluents like gas condensate, which are often imported.
Out of 4.5 barrels of Merey-16—the famous Venezuelan blend—0.5 are gas condensate, and the rest are heavy crude.
From early 2021 until mid 2023, Iran was the main source of diluents in Venezuela, due to sanctions. However, thanks to licenses from the Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. and Western Europe have completely displaced it.
The production of lighter crudes has dwindled due to the fires in the Muscar Gas Complex in November: Part of the gas produced by PDVSA is injected into wells to push out crude oil.
Consequently, this January Venezuela increased its imports of lighter crudes, as was recently pointed out by Reuters.
Harry Sargeant boosts asphalt deliveries to the U.S.
Last week, Florida oil tycoon Harry Sargeant III received an extra bit of attention: the Miami Herald claimed that he facilitated the agreement between Maduro and Trump’s envoy, Richard Grenell—the diplomat said the article was full of errors.
But there is another piece of news: Sargeant’s Global Oil doubled* its deliveries of Venezuelan asphalt from December to January—243,000 to 525,000 barrels.
According to a report from the Paraguaná Refining Complex, Global Oil lifted four cargoes bound for Portland, Baltimore, and New Haven in the U.S. and Puerto Cortés in Honduras. 92% was for the first three ports.
Global Oil has also invested in the Isla Refinery in Curaçao, alongside Qatar’s Oryx. The facility was set up to process Venezuelan crudes, and was initially operated by PDVSA.
The U.S. company thus has authorisations from the OFAC to ship extra heavy crudes—like asphalt—and supply the Curaçao refinery.
*The S&P note says “54% increase” but it is a 116% increase.
