Madrid/Although tension between Washington and Caracas is at a very high point due to the US military deployment in the Caribbean, PDVSA’s oil exports through Chevron continue to grow. The American company sent 128,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) this October, according to Reuters data, which is 18.5% more than in September, when there were 108,000. This month’s report does not reveal the oil sent to the Island, although it does reveal the derivatives, a total of 11,000 bpd.
The authorization granted by the Donald Trump Administration – which allows the company to export only half of its production to the United States and regulates payments to the Government of Caracas – has meant that crude oil is once again flowing in large quantities between the two countries even this bad month for Venezuelan exports, which fell 26%. After a record amount last September, when the figure reached 1,093,667 bpd, the drop has been considerable in October, with 808,000 barrels per day. According to data from the British agency, the drop is due to the decrease in the country’s reserves and the reduction in imports of diluents to produce exportable crude oil.
After a record amount last September, when the figure reached 1,093,667 bpd, the drop has been considerable in October, with 808,000 barrels per day
These purchases – of light crude oil and naphtha, mainly from Russia, to dilute Venezuelan extra-heavy oil – reflect that in September some 41,000 barrels per day were purchased and in October 73,500 barrels per day, figures much lower than the averages for the first two months of the year, with 105,000 and 110,000 bpd.
According to Reuters figures, 34 oil tankers left Venezuela last month with crude oil and refined products, to which are added nearly 195,000 metric tons of petroleum products and petrochemicals, 9% less than the same month in 2024.
Almost 80% of total exports – some 663,000 bpd – went to China, as usual, through little-known intermediaries to avoid the sanctions imposed by the US on PDVSA.
The oil sent to Cuba by Caracas remains secret this October, after the largest average shipment of the year arrived last month, with 52,000 bpd, very close to the amount agreed upon 25 years ago between Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. The data available this year – absent some months, like the current one – indicate that PDVSA is very far from what was promised. However, last May the Cuban Government mentioned on television that it had devised with Venezuela a formula that, he said, he was not going to reveal “so that they do not persecute her.”
At the same time, the Island has been receiving increasingly crude from Mexico which, according to the subsidiary company of Pemex Gasolinas Bienestar, SA de CV, does not give away to Cuba, although it refuses to present invoices and payment receipts. The company placed the value of oil sales to Havana at around 5,300 million pesos (289 million dollars) – around 3,257,800 barrels – but since it is an impossible bill for the Díaz-Canel Government to pay, several experts suspect that Venezuela is part of a triangulation pact.
The oil sent to Cuba by Caracas remains secret this October, after the largest average shipment of the year arrived last month, with 52,000 bpd
Meanwhile, the Island continues with its chronic problems of lack of electricity, aggravated in recent days by the disconnection of the entire eastern zone from the national electrical system (SEN) after the passage of Hurricane Melissa almost a week ago. Although some parts are being reconnected little by little, the Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, said this Monday in a meeting to assess the damage that, at 12 noon, only Las Tunas had made progress in recovering the service, which was at 94.5%. The rest were still quite far away –Holguín at 40.5%; Granma, at 50.4% and Guantánamo at 58.7% -, with Santiago de Cuba in the worst situation, since the Felton thermoelectric plant was out of operation. In addition, unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez plant also left yesterday for a few hours.
Although the thermoelectric plants continue with their continuous dance of inputs and outputs – already a month before the dreaded comprehensive repair of the Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas, begins – the worst is still in the distributed generation, where there is a lack of lubricants (140 megawatts (MW) affected” and a fuel shortage that subtracts another 402 MW.
