Overview
- U.S. enforcement has cut Venezuela’s December exports to about half of November levels, with two fully loaded cargoes seized and many ships rerouted or turning back.
- Chevron remains the lone operator with a U.S. Treasury license, and its Venezuelan crude continues to discharge at Gulf Coast refineries without disruption.
- Floating storage has climbed to roughly 16 million barrels, with almost two dozen tankers clustered near the José terminal awaiting instructions or loading windows.
- PDVSA’s loading pace has slowed after a cyberattack disrupted its administrative systems, compounding port bottlenecks.
- Some tankers are still arriving under oil-for-debt routes to China, while financing and insurance pullbacks leave an estimated $900 million of crude stranded and trigger initial shut-ins in the Orinoco Belt.