US EditionVenezuela Starts Shutting Oil Wells as US Blockade Halts Flows
PDVSA is cutting Orinoco Belt oil production by 25% to about 500,000 barrels per day due to U.S. maritime enforcement and tanker seizures choking exports.
- Following the December 23 decision, Petroleos de Venezuela SA began disabling Orinoco Belt wells two days ago as storage fills and exports are squeezed, Bloomberg reported Monday.
- U.S. maritime enforcement has tightened, closing routes for sanctioned vessels to China and causing Venezuelan storage overflow as the United States seized the Panama-flagged Centuries and VLCC Skipper.
- PDVSA plans to cut Orinoco output to about 500,000 bpd, slashing 25% and shutting roughly 15% of Venezuela's around 1.1 million bpd, with Junin wells closing first.
- U.S. supermajor Chevron continues limited shipments under a special license while Petroleos de Venezuela SA loses export pathways, squeezing complex U.S. Gulf Coast refineries reliant on heavy sour crude.
- Chinese-Flagged tankers are still sailing for Venezuela despite U.S. pressure, and Beijing voiced objections at the U.N. The U.S. has conducted more than 20 military strikes on Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats since September, with more escalation possible in the coming weeks.
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13 Articles
The Columbian
Venezuela starts shutting oil wells as US blockade halts flows
Venezuela started shutting wells in a region that holds the world’s largest deposits of oil in the face of a blockade by the Trump administration meant to financially squeeze the nation. Read more...
Venezuela Starts Cutting Oil Production Amid U.S. Blockade
Venezuela has begun shutting wells that pump extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt, as the U.S. blockade is squeezing shipments and filling up storage space, sources with knowledge of the plans of state oil firm PDVSA told Bloomberg. PDVSA, the key handler of Venezuela’s crude exports, mostly to China, began disabling producing wells in the Orinoco Belt two days ago, following a decision taken on December 23, according to Bloomberg’s anonymous s…
Venezuela Starts Shutting Oil Wells
“Venezuela started shutting wells in a region that holds the world’s largest deposits of oil in the face of a blockade by the Trump administration meant to financially squeeze the nation,” Bloomberg reports. “The decision signals a reality check for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who throughout the blockade has attempted to maintain exports that are at the core of the South American country’s economy. Disabling wells is seen as a last reso…
Tensions are rising between Venezuela and the United States. Attacks authorized by the White House on dozens of vessels off the Venezuelan coast have caused the deaths of over 100 people, as denounced by a group of experts commissioned by the UN. They emphasized the illegality of the American naval blockade, effectively "a prohibited use of military force" that activates "a right of self-defense" for the victim state.
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