Venezuela has increased oil supplies to ally Cuba in May four-fold as US sanctions severely limit exports to other countries, PDVSA documents show. According to the documents, seen by S&P Global Platts Thursday, state-owned PDVSA exported 1.416 million barrels of combined crude and products in May to Cuba’s state Cubametales, up from 355,000 barrels in April.
PDVSA sold 646,000 barrels of diluted crude oil (DCO) at Dated Brent minus $9.60/b to Cubametales, which exports and imports metals, fuels and lubricants, the documents show. PDVSA also sold 200,000 barrels of natural gasoline to Cubametales at non-Targa Mont Belvieu natural gasoline plus 6.90 cents/gal and 120,000 barrels of light virgin naphtha at non-Targa Mont Belvieu natural gasoline plus 14.20 cents/gal. The DCO was scheduled for May 22-23 delivery on the PDVSA tanker Yare, while the natural gasoline and naphtha were scheduled for delivery May 17-19, on PDVSA’s Manuela Saez. Both tankers are to arrive in the Cuban port of Matanzas.
PDVSA also sold 450,000 barrels of 3% sulfur fuel oil to Cubametales, at US Gulf Coast Waterborne HSFO minus $3.47/b, for May 22-24 delivery on an unspecified tanker, the PDVSA documents showed. According to Platts cFlow trade flow software, the Manuela Saez was last seen off the Cuban coast between May 10 and May 19, while the Yare has been lingering off the Venezuelan coast near Amuay for the past 14 days. PDVSA and Cubametales were not immediately available for comment.