Venezuela’s oil exports inched higher in June, boosted by cargoes to Asia and expanded sales of upgraded crude, data from state-run oil firm PDVSA and tanker monitoring showed, as the nation rushed to deliver crude to China ahead of an import tax. Traders last month raced to discharge in China record imports of Venezuelan crude masked as Malaysian bitumen blends ahead of a June 12 tax that raised import costs by at least 40% for several types of fuel. read more The tax coincided with the restart of a crude upgrader and an oil-blending plant that process extra-heavy crude from the Orinoco Belt for export. The upgrader is operated by the Petrocedeno joint venture between PDVSA, TotalEnergies and Equinor (EQNR.OL) , and the Petrosinovensa blending plant belongs to PDVSA and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPET.UL). The operations resumption, along with the restart of Petropiar’s blending […]