Crude oil exports from Venezuela inched up last month as traders rushed to sell Venezuelan crude to Chinese buyers ahead of the entry into effect of a new tax. Reuters reports Venezuelan exports for Asia were most commonly masked as Malaysian oil, and the biggest portion of these entered Asia before June 12, when the new Chinese import tax entered into effect, raising the costs of fuel imports by as much as 40 percent. Yet Venezuela also reported a rare increase in production last month, thanks to the restart of a crude upgrader under PDVSA’s joint venture with TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor. A blending plant was also restarted last month, contributing to the production increase. According to shipping data cited by Reuters, PDVSA exported some 631,900 bpd of crude last month, up by 6.5 percent from May and as much as 66 percent from June 2020. A couple of […]