Russia urges Venezuela to increase output

Venezuelan officials discussed increasing crude output in a meeting with Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin earlier this week, a visit that came on the heels of Cuba asking the Russian company for help with its energy shortages.

Officials met as the flow of Venezuelan hydrocarbons to Cuba has dropped while US major Chevron is ramping up output through its joint ventures (JV) with state-owned PdV following the easing of some sanctions in November.

Venezuela's oil minister Tareck El Aissami, PdV president Pedro Tellechea and Sechin met on 5 March in Caracas to discuss increasing oil production, El Aissami said on social media.

"Cooperation in the energy field with the Russian Federation is broad and deep," El Aissami said. "We will continue to complement our oil and gas potential. We have defined a work agenda to increase crude oil production and advance in new business opportunities."

Sechin had me with Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel on 3 March to discuss collaboration "especially in what concerns the energy sector," the Cuban government said. Sechin vowed to do "everything that we can in order to move forward."

Cuba in recent months have been receiving fewer shipments from Venezuela. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's mentor and predecessor — Hugo Chavez — signed a preferential supply agreement with Cuban president Fidel Castro more than 20 years ago that committed Venezuela to sending 100,000 b/d in crude and products to the island.

Cuba received close to 600,000 bl of crude and products in January, or 20,000 b/d, down from 1.8mn bl, or 58,000 b/d, in December, based on ship tracking data from Vortexa.

Meanwhile Chevron has exported 2.7mn bl of crude from 7 January-23 February, or about 57,000 b/d, all of it to its US refineries. Its four JVs with PdV are producing roughly 100,000 b/d, based on Vortexa data and other sources.

By Carlos Camacho