US refiner Citgo Petroleum is willing to resume imports of Venezuelan crude, suspended since 2019 by Washington’s sanctions on its parent company PDVSA, if the US government authorises the flow, Citgo’s CEO stated.
Since March, top US and Venezuelan officials have been engaged in political negotiations that could lead to Washington easing oil trading sanctions that have hit the OPEC country’s production and exports.
OPEC and the French government, representing Europe, have called for Washington to allow Venezuelan and Iranian crude to flow to consuming nations that are struggling to replace Russian energy supplies during the war in Ukraine.
“To be competitive in this market, we have to buy the cheapest and most convenient crude,” said Carlos Jorda, Citgo CEO, in an online conference on Venezuela’s foreign energy assets. “We should not be at a disadvantage to other refiners.”
President Joe Biden’s administration in May authorised European companies Eni and Repsol to resume imports of Venezuelan crude, which in June helped boost the nation’s oil exports to over 600,000 barrels per day.
Chevron, the last US producer operating in Venezuela, is requesting an authorisation from the US treasury department to ship Venezuelan oil to the United States and even getting operating control of its joint ventures.
“If authorised (Venezuelan) crude arrives in the US Gulf Coast without penalties at competitive prices, especially if it is heavy crude, we would certainly have to evaluate it,” said Horacio Medina, president of a board overseeing Citgo, in the same conference.
“I see no reason to be radically closed to that.”
Speaking just ahead of the announcement of the second-quarter results, Jorda described how the “first-quarter profit soared more than 10 times the year-ago level to $245 million on higher crude processing volumes and surging fuel prices.”
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