<article><p class="lead">About 800,000 bl of crude from Venezuela has shipped under eased US sanctions and is set to arrive at Chevron's 369,000 b/d refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, next week.</p><p>The Aframax <i>Caribbean Voyager</i> loaded with about 380,000 bl of a Merey-type upgraded crude left Venezuela's Jose terminal on 7 January and is set to arrive in Pascagoula near or on 18 January, according to ship tracking data from <i>Vortexa</i>.</p><p>The <i>Sealeo,</i> also loaded with 380,000 bl of Merey-type crude, is bound for the same destination, arriving in the same time frame, after receiving a ship-to-ship transfer of crude offshore of the Jose terminal. The port handles crude from Chevron's PetroPiar joint venture with state-owned PdV. </p><p>Other sources have confirmed the cargoes are bound for Chevron's refinery, which is equipped to handle the heavy crude. </p><p>Chevron is ramping up production again in its joint ventures with state-owned PdV in the wake of the US easing some sanctions against Venezuela last year.</p><p>But infrastructure issues from years of neglect are slowing some exports. These include a lack of dredging at Lake Maracaibo, near Venezuela' oldest oil producing areas to the west of the Jose terminal, which is forcing ships to use transfers and other maneuvers.</p><p>A Chevron source said the conditions are not delaying exports but do "limit us to a maximum cargo of 250,000 bl per ship" in Lake Maracaibo. Ship-to-ship transfers are taking place near state-owned PdV's nameplate 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery in Falcon state, near the Punta Cardon port. But other sources said the conditions are a time constraint.</p><p>The <i>Beauty One</i>, a tanker built in 1993, may have been used in such a ship-to-ship transfer to first navigate shallower channels in Lake Maracaibo before moving Boscan asphaltic-type crude from the PetroBoscan JV to a larger ship. The <i>Kerala</i>, a ship retained by Chevron, is awaiting orders inside the Lake Maracaibo channel. </p><p>Very large crude carriers are unable to navigate Lake Maracaibo as it has not been dredged since at least 2015, analysts told <i>Argus</i>.</p><p>"No doubt, we need to resume maintenance of the lake's channel," a Venezuelan oil chamber source said. "That used to be a routine thing."</p><p>Chevron sources in the US and PdV in Caracas declined to comment.</p><p class="bylines">By Carlos Camacho</p></article>
