Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has started producing two upgraded crude grades for domestic refining, aiming at reanimating the country’s much-needed output of motor fuels, according to a company document and sources close the decision. Years of under-investment in PDVSA’s 1.3 million-barrel-per-day capacity refining network and U.S. sanctions since 2019 have led to an intermittent scarcity of cooking gas, gasoline, and diesel, making the nation more dependent on imports and forcing Venezuelans to line up for hours and even days to get fuel. As Venezuela’s refineries were originally built to process medium to light crudes, PDVSA’s increasingly heavy oil output no longer meets the facilities’ diet, forcing the company to decide every month whether to refine its limited stocks of light oil or use it as a diluent for its flagship exportable grade Merey. Following the restart of a key upgrader in June, operated by the […]