Chevron’s first shipment of Venezuelan crude sails to the US after license

Chevron Corp’s first shipment of Venezuelan crude after receiving a license from the United States in November departed from a ship-to-ship transfer center near Aruba en route to its Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery, according to shipping data seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

Chevron received authorization from the US Treasury Department to revive oil production and expand operations in Venezuela as part of Washington’s efforts to encourage political dialogue towards a presidential election in the South American nation.

State oil company PDVSA assigned Chevron the first shipment of crude this month, which it loaded at Venezuela’s Jose terminal last week, according to shipping data and documents.

Chevron’s Caribbean Voyager tanker this week transferred the shipment of 500,000 barrels of Hamaca heavy crude it had loaded in Venezuela to the Malta-flagged Sealeo at a transfer center near the Caribbean island of Aruba, according to maritime monitoring data from Refinitiv eikon.

The Sealeo is scheduled to arrive at Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery on January 15, according to Eikon data.

Another cargo of Venezuelan crude chartered by Chevron aboard the oil tanker Kerala was on Tuesday in the Lake Maracaibo navigation channel, where a lack of dredging and a stranded ship are creating limitations for vessel transit.

“We continue to conduct our business in compliance with all laws and regulations where we operate, as well as the sanctions framework provided by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control,” Chevron said in a statement to Reuters.

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