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UPDATE 1-Venezuela buys Latin America's first U.S. export crude cargo -traders
12:21 pm -- (Updates with context, PDVSA's no comment)
By Marianna Parraga
HOUSTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has imported a 550,000-barrel cargo of West Texas Intermediate crude at one of its terminals in the Caribbean, traders told Reuters on Tuesday, marking the first Latin American purchase of U.S. oil since an export ban was lifted last year.
Despite having the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela started importing foreign crudes in 2014 amid a fall in its own production of medium and light crudes, used to feed some of its Caribbean refineries and to dilute its extra heavy oil output.
Since then, PDVSA has been buying mostly Angolan and Nigerian light grades while using its Bullenbay terminal in Curacao as a blending facility.
The cargo of WTI, on the Aframax tanker Eagle Kuantan, was loaded at the U.S. Gulf Coast and discharged on Jan. 28 at Bullenbay, according to Reuters vessel tracking data.
The provider of the cargo was Citgo Petroleum, PDVSA's refining unit in the United States, traders added. Citgo operates refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Citgo and PDVSA did not immediately answer requests to comment. It is not clear who was the original seller of the crude.
Since the U.S. export ban was lifted in late 2015, producers have sold crude to Europe and Asia, including a cargo sold by ConocoPhillips to Italy, another shipped by trader Vitol to France, a 300,000-barrel cargo to be lifted in February by Japan's Cosmo Oil and another bought by China's refining firm Sinopec Corp for March.
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però mi riferiscono che prima di andar via gli hanno detto #Fu*kingFrackers nonchè #YankeeGoHome...
a parte gli scherzi... è la soluzione ottimale per bilanciare il mercato, con vantaggi per tutti e due. gli USA hanno bisogno di crudo pesante e il venezuela di crudo leggero, molto meglio che passare dall'algeria...
