Chevron's First Shipment Of Venezuelan Oil En Route To US - Source

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2023) Chevron's first shipment of Venezuelan oil is currently heading to the United States, a person familiar with the situation told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Two vessels with Venezuelan crude oil are on their way to the United States while one vessel with US diluent oil is en route to Venezuela, according to sources.

The Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA currently relies on Iran for diluent supply that is much needed for its extra heavy oil production.

Last month, a source told Sputnik that the current shipment headed to the United States would amount to one million barrels of Venezuelan crude.

The US Treasury provided in November a new license that allows Chevron to extract oil in Venezuela for six months through its joint venture partners such as PDVSA. However, this license does not expand operations or allow new US investment in Venezuela's oil sector.

The United States granted the new license after the Venezuelan government and the opposition resumed talks in Mexico City and came to an agreement on addressing the humanitarian crisis in the country, including an agreement on the continuation of talks focused on elections to be held in 2024.

According to US officials, Venezuela-related sanctions and restrictions imposed by the United States still remain in place and this decision should not be interpreted as a permissive environment on sanctions.

However, the United States will consider whether its policies remain open to further calibrating of the sanctions regime, which will depend on whether the Venezuelan government takes concrete steps to address several key issues.

The Biden administration began looking for options to help lower gasoline prices for US consumers after OPEC+ decided to slash production last fall due to a slowing economy, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve supply has dropped to record lows following the release of millions of barrels of oil since March.