After the deal struck between Washington and the (now Maduro-less) regime in Venezuela, oil exports to the US almost tripled to 284,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters. This created an over-supply, putting pressures on prices. Still, refineries on the US Gulf coast complain that prices are too high compared with competing Canadian grades.
Vitol and Trafigura secured licences to market millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil after the $2 billion deal signed last month, joining Chevron. However, “We’re all facing this issue where there’s more to place and not enough takers,” one of the traders is quoted saying by Reuters.
There are speculations that India could swallow the surplus oil. After the US-India deal announced by Trump, India, Trump claimed, would drop oil purchases from Russia and buy US oil, in exchange for tariff cuts. There is no sign, however, that India intends to do so.
Maria Zakharova, in her Feb. 4 press conference, confirmed that view from the Russian side: “We have no grounds to believe that Indian friends have reconsidered their approach. We are still confident that the purchase of Russian hydrocarbons by India benefits both countries and facilitates maintaining stability in the international energy market. We are ready to continue close cooperation in this sphere with our partners in India.”
It is also reported that China has suspended importing oil from Venezuela.
