Venezuela’s crude oil exports rose last month despite Washington imposing new sanctions in January on several trading houses that worked with Caracas to export its oil. According to Tanker Trackers and OilX, crude oil exports from Venezuela were up in February. But Venezuela isn’t exactly transparent about its exports, and not everyone agrees that its crude oil shipments saw a rise in February. Bloomberg reported that Venezuela’s exports had fallen to less than 420,000 bpd, down 13 percent over January, citing tanker tracking data and shipping reports that reflect the imposition of sanctions on one Maltese and one Swiss trading company for facilitating the attempts of the Maduro regime to market its oil abroad. According to Tanker Trackers, however, Venezuela exported at least 500,000 bpd of crude oil in February, which was an increase over January. OilX said that Venezuelan oil exports averaged 522,000 bpd in February, versus 468,000 […]