Venezuela awaits new products cargo from Italy
Venezuela will receive another products cargo from Italy next week, highlighting the endurance of debt-related oil trade with EU companies that falls outside the scope of escalating US sanctions on Caracas.
The Malta-flagged Gemma is scheduled to berth at Venezuela's Amuay terminal around 8 July, having loaded at Milazzo, Italy, on 19-21 June, according to ship tracking services. Italy's Eni and Kuwait's state-owned KPC run a 235,000 b/d refinery at Milazzo, which received a 1mn cargo of Venezuelan crude this week on the Greece-flagged Delta Tolmi.
Eni and Spain's Repsol import Venezuelan crude and deliver products back under debt-and-swap arrangements tied to their upstream operations in Venezuela, which has been the target of US sanctions since January 2019. The sanctions do not have a direct secondary component, but the US has been aggressively targeting individual tankers and shipping companies in recent weeks in an effort to drive down revenue to the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The US, the EU and other countries recognise opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president.
The US sanctions are mainly focused on gasoline, Venezuela's core transport fuel and one of the products that state-owned PdV is no longer able to produce in steady quantities or quality at its dilapidated refineries. Recent gasoline and alkylate shipments from Iran, and limited production at PdV's CRP refining complex, have provided a short-term reprieve from an acute fuel shortage. It is unclear what product the Gemma is transporting to Venezuela.
Repsol and Eni are partners in the Cardon 4 joint venture, which encompasses the Perla offshore natural gas field. The sole offtaker is PdV.
Cardon 4 started production at Perla in 2015. Peak output had been forecast to reach 1.2bn ft³/d (12.4bn m³/yr) in 2020, but production has slumped from an initial 550mn ft³/d because of a lack of adequate infrastructure, investment and demand.
Repsol and Eni have joint ventures with PdV in the Orinoco extra-heavy oil belt, the source of most of Venezuela's production. The Opec country's output collapsed to around 300,000 b/d in late June and early July, from 550,000 b/d in May, according to Argus estimates. The downturn mainly reflects a lack of storage and PdV's difficulties in marketing and transporting its crude.
Related news posts
US trucking index at 18-month high in August: ATA
US trucking index at 18-month high in August: ATA
Houston, 25 September (Argus) — US trucking freight volumes rose in August to the highest level since February 2023, the American Trucking Association (ATA) said. The ATA's seasonally adjusted Truck Tonnage Index (TTI) rose in August by 1.8pc from a month earlier and by 0.7pc from a year earlier. The index has increased on a monthly and yearly basis only twice in the past 18 months, last doing so in May 2024 . August's "robust gain" indicates freight levels are rebounding from a bottom, according to ATA economist Bob Costello. The TTI's month-to-month movement so far this year also shows the freight market is "at an inflection point," Costello said. The US trucking industry contracted in 2023 and initially got off to a slow start this year. Last week, the Federal Reserve cut its target lending rates for the first time in four years , suggesting the worst inflationary pressures may be over. The TTI is calculated monthly using a survey of ATA membership to estimate seasonally-adjusted trends in the value of US truck freight. Trucking comprises roughly three-quarters of tonnage carried by all modes of transportation in the US, and so can serve as an indicator of the health of the transportation sector and the economy at large. By Gordon Pollock Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Vertex Energy files for bankruptcy, seeks sale
Vertex Energy files for bankruptcy, seeks sale
Houston, 25 September (Argus) — Specialty refiner Vertex Energy has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in a US court following a failed foray into renewable fuels production at its 88,000 b/d Mobile, Alabama, refinery. Vertex has entered into a restructuring support agreement with its lenders and secured $80mn of new funding to finance its day-to-day business operations, the company said late Tuesday. The refiner is also considering a "more value-maximizing sale transaction" and expects to confirm its chapter 11 bankruptcy plan by the end of the year, according to the 24 September press release. Vertex announced in May this year that it would "pause" renewable diesel production at its Alabama refinery and return the unit to producing fossil fuel products. The company later said it would use a third quarter turnaround to return the Alabama plant's converted hydrocracking unit to processing fossil fuel feedstocks and be back online in the fourth quarter. Vertex also operates a re-refinery near New Orleans, Louisiana, that produces low-sulfur vacuum gas oil (VGO) and multiple used motor oil (UMO) processing plants and collection facilities along the Gulf coast. Refiners have faced mixed fortunes in recent years with their investments in renewable fuels after a glut of new supply flooded markets and depressed renewable credit prices. US independent refiner Delek announced in August that it is temporarily idling three biodiesel plants in Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi as it explores alternative uses for the sites. Chevron said earlier this year it was indefinitely closing two biodiesel plants in Wisconsin and Iowa due to market conditions. By Nathan Risser Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Helene shuts in about 16pc of US Gulf oil: Update 2
Helene shuts in about 16pc of US Gulf oil: Update 2
Adds daily spot market crude pricing information. New York, 24 September (Argus) — Tropical storm Helene, which is expected to develop into a hurricane on Wednesday before coming ashore in Florida Thursday, has shut in about 16pc of US Gulf of Mexico oil output. Around 284,000 b/d of US offshore oil output was off line as of 12:30pm ET, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), while 208mn cf/d of natural gas production, or 11pc of the region's output, was also off line. Operators have so far evacuated workers from four offshore production platforms. Helene was last about 175 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, according to a 2pm ET advisory from the US National Hurricane Center, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. The current forecast has the center of Helene entering the eastern Gulf of Mexico Wednesday morning and moving north-northeast toward a possible landfall near the Florida panhandle region late Thursday. By then it will have strengthened into a major hurricane, with winds of at least 111mph, according to forecasts. While the storm will largely pass to the east of most offshore oil and gas production areas, companies started suspended some operations on Sunday. Chevron began evacuating workers and shutting in its Blind Faith and Petronius platforms. "While we are also transporting nonessential personnel from our four other Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico platforms, production there remains at normal levels," the company said. Shell said Monday it had shut in output from its Stones facility and curtailed production from the Appomattox platform, both off the coast of Louisiana. The company was also relocating non-essential workers from its assets in the Mars corridor, and suspending some drilling operations. Equinor said it was shutting down the Titan oil platform as a precaution. BP had started to shut in production at its Na Kika and Thunder Horse platforms, southeast of New Orleans, and was curtailing output from its Argos and Atlantis facilities, as well as removing non-essential staff. Offshore spot prices rise slightly The Na Kika platform is connected by pipeline to the Shell-operated Delta pipeline system, which carries Heavy Louisiana Sweet (HLS) crude to shore. During trading on Tuesday, October HLS rose by 20¢/bl relative to the light sweet crude benchmark in Cushing, Oklahoma, to an 80¢/bl discount. The October US pipeline trade month ends Wednesday. The Thunder Horse platform production is marketed as part of a sour crude stream by the same name that is priced at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Pipeline's (LOOP) facility in Clovelly, Louisiana, where it has dedicated underground cavern storage, as does Mars. On Tuesday, Thunder Horse traded at a 50¢/bl discount to the Cushing benchmark, after wide discussion circled a 40¢/bl discount in the prior session. Medium sour secondary benchmark Mars tightened its gap to the Cushing basis by 30¢/bl to a volume-weighted average discount of roughly $1.55/bl. Crude production from the 140,000 b/d capacity Argos platform feeds into the Cameron Highway Oil Pipeline System (CHOPS), which carries Southern Green Canyon (SGC) crude to the Texas Gulf coast. Argos platform serves the Mad Dog 2 field development that came online last year. Atlantis production also feeds into SGC. No SGC transactions were reported on Tuesday. It was offered as low as $1/bl under the Cushing benchmark, lower than trade at a 50¢/bl discount in the prior session. US offshore production was disrupted earlier this month when Hurricane Francine made landfall as a category 1 storm. Up to 42pc of production was offline at one point. The offshore Gulf of Mexico accounts for around 15pc of total US crude output and 5pc of US natural gas production. By Stephen Cunningham Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Container lines to impose US strike surcharges
Container lines to impose US strike surcharges
New York, 24 September (Argus) — Container ship owners Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd warned their clients that if a looming port strike takes place, they would implement port disruption surcharges for container cargo moving to and from the US east and Gulf coast terminals. If a International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) strike takes place, CMA CGM's surcharge will go into effect on 11 October. The company will charge $1,500 per twenty-foot container unit (TEU) and $3,000 per forty-foot container unit for cargo moving from Latin America and the Caribbean to the US east and Gulf coasts. CMA CGM's surcharge for exports from the US east and Gulf coasts to Latin America and the Caribbean will be $800 per TEU and $1,000 per forty-foot container unit. Hapag-Lloyd's surcharge of $1,000 per TEU will apply from 18 October to all imports to the US east and Gulf coast. Maersk will implement its surcharge on 21 October. It will include $1,500 per TEU, $3,000 per forty-foot container unit and $3,780 per forty-five-foot container unit for cargo moving in and out of US east and Gulf coasts. Its surcharges are subject to regulatory approval for containers departing from China. The company is prioritizing import container movements before disruptions take place and asking its customers to expedite documentation and customs clearance to retrieve cargo promptly. It warns that strike disruptions will affect terminal operators' ability to monitor refrigerated containers and encourages its customers to plan accordingly to avoid the risk of loss to temperature-controlled cargo. The surcharges would cover higher operational costs that will be incurred due to service disruptions, the companies say. They are exploring alternative routing options. A possible strike could cause some of the container ship cargo to be re-routed to US west coast ports, Canada and Mexico, and then transported on rail or truck to the US Gulf and east coasts. The contract between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) is set to expire on 30 September. The current six-year agreement covers approximately 25,000 port workers employed in container and roll-on/roll-off operations at ports from Maine to Texas. The USMX reiterated its willingness to reenter discussions with the ILA on a new master contract. By Stefka Wechsler Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Business intelligence reports
Get concise, trustworthy and unbiased analysis of the latest trends and developments in oil and energy markets. These reports are specially created for decision makers who don’t have time to track markets day-by-day, minute-by-minute.
Learn more