Venezuelan Oil Exports Progress Slowly Under US Supply Deal

Venezuelan oil exports under a flagship $2 billion supply deal with the U.S. reached about 7.8 million barrels on Wednesday, vessel-tracking data and documents from state-run PDVSA showed, with shipments accelerating after the U.S. eased its blockade but not enough for PDVSA to fully reverse output cuts.

Following the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro in early January, Caracas and Washington agreed to a deal to sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude stored in tanks and vessels. Trading houses Vitol and Trafigura obtained the first U.S. licenses to load and export cargoes from the OPEC country.

But the supply has yet to significantly ease PDVSA's swollen inventories, which grew during a U.S. blockade on exports that lasted nearly a month and left Venezuela with tens of millions of barrels of oil in storage on land, and on loaded tankers stranded in Venezuela's waters.

Energy giant PDVSA, which in early January cut production because it had nowhere left to store the oil, has yet to fully reverse those cuts as it waits for storage levels to fall, according to the documents and company sources.

Sales have been slow because refiners have refused to pay prices the trading companies