Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA has begun scaling back crude production and has asked its joint ventures — including those operated with Chevron — to do the same, as storage space rapidly fills amid a U.S. naval blockade and oil export embargo.
According to sources familiar with operations cited by Reuters, PDVSA has instructed Petrolera Sinovensa, its joint venture with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), as well as Chevron-linked ventures Petropiar and Petroboscan, to curb output by shutting in wells and production clusters.
One source said Sinovensa was preparing to shut down up to ten well clusters starting Sunday following PDVSA’s directive. Chevron’s joint ventures have not yet implemented production cuts. Petropiar still has some available storage capacity, and tankers continue to load Chevron-produced crude bound for the United States under a special license from the U.S. Treasury Department, sources said.
The U.S. blockade is intended to intensify pressure on Venezuela and cut off the Maduro government’s primary source of revenue. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces and his arrest pending trial in New York, Washington has said it will maintain what it describes as an “oil quarantine” to force changes in how Venezuela’s oil industry is managed.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the oil quarantine would remain firmly in place. “We have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy cannot move forward until conditions are met that are in the national interest of the United States and in the interest of the Venezuelan people,” Rubio said in an interview with ABC on Sunday.
“That leverage remains, that leverage is ongoing, and we expect it to lead to results,” Rubio added. “We hope those results are positive for the people of Venezuela, but ultimately, the most important thing for us is the national interest of the United States.”
Note by Alessandro Bazzoni