- PDVSA halted export authorisations for two Chevron chartered vessels and blocked a third from loading, stalling Venezuelan crude shipments after new U.S. sanctions.
- Chevron now awaits customs clearance to return the cargoes, as U.S. secondary sanctions disrupt its authorised oil exports from Venezuela.
Chevron now faces at least two vessels carrying Venezuelan crude stalled in Venezuelan waters after state oil company PDVSA cancelled their export authorisations following U.S. secondary tariffs on the OPEC member’s buyers.
PDVSA cancelled set-sail authorisations Thursday for two Chevron-chartered vessels that had finished loading and suspended a loading permit for a third tanker. According to the sources, Chevron awaits customs paperwork to return the cargo to ports.
The U.S. Treasury Department authorised Chevron under an individual license in March to operate in U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela and ship Venezuelan crude cargoes to the United States until late May before suspending operations and exports. PDVSA’s orders might shorten this deadline.
According to the sources and LSEG shipping data, the Chevron-chartered vessels Dubai Attraction and Carina Voyager remain loaded in Venezuelan waters as of Friday, April 11, waiting for the paperwork for the cargo’s return. Chevron must now obtain authorisation for their return as instructed by PDVSA because the cargoes had been declared as exports to Venezuela’s customs authority.
Carina Voyager was heading to Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi, while Dubai Attraction planned to transfer its cargo to a Valero Energy-chartered vessel off Aruba. PDVSA also suspended a loading window for a third vessel, the Pegasus Star, this week.
Chevron and PDVSA did not reply to requests for comment, and Valero did not immediately respond. Sources could not immediately confirm if PDVSA would reschedule the cargo.
Chevron’s joint ventures with PDVSA produce about a quarter of Venezuela’s oil output. The company exported approximately 250,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude to the U.S. in the first quarter under its license, granted in 2022.
President Donald Trump’s administration cancelled Chevron’s license and others to European and Asian companies in Venezuela last month. Washington accused President Nicolas Maduro of failing to curb illegal migration to the U.S. and restore democracy in Venezuela.
Maduro’s government has rejected the U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil industry, which have been in effect since 2019, calling them an “economic war.”