Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA expects its crucial crude upgraders to operate well below capacity this month, according to industry sources and documents seen by Reuters, as U.S. sanctions and energy blackouts hit the OPEC nation’s oil industry. Venezuela depends on the upgraders, which are mostly operated by joint ventures with foreign companies, to convert the extra-heavy crude oil produced in the Orinoco Belt into exportable grades usable in overseas refineries. Together, they have a capacity of some 700,000 barrels per day. Prolonged power outages have been adding to problems blending and exporting crude, as PDVSA’s main oil port, Jose, in northeastern Venezuela remained paralyzed. The Petropiar and Petromonagas upgraders, part-owned by U.S. oil major Chevron and […]