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Posted on 04/08/2026 6:07:26 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
According to recent reports, Venezuela’s monthly crude oil exports have once again surpassed one million barrels per day. Andy Walz – president of downstream, midstream, and chemicals at Chevron – confirmed to the BBC that the company is importing the equivalent a quarter of a million barrels of Venezuelan oil per day. The BBC detailed that the crude oil tanker Minerva Gloria recently docked at a wharf in the Mississippi sound, carrying 400,000 barrels of crude oil — an amount that, six months ago, would have been “impossible” to bring to the United States.
~ SNIP ~
Venezuela is home to the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but its oil output capacity has been dramatically diminished after more than two decades of disastrous socialist mismanagement left the nation’s entire oil industry in a dire state. Following Maduro’s capture, the Venezuelan socialists have sought American help and investment to restore the nation’s oil industry, which at some point was capable of producing upwards of 3 million barrels per day.
~ SNIP ~
The BBC noted that Chevron and other companies are importing Venezuelan crude oil “by the shipload” as a result of the war in Iran and the Iranian regime’s blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.
“It’s a big deal not only for Chevron but the entire Gulf region,” Tim Potter, director of Chevron’s refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, told the BBC.
“It’s a pretty big incentive for us to run it,” he continued. “The refinery was really designed, and we invested in the refinery, to run heavy oils like from Venezuela.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
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While Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, its extra-heavy crude is known to be thick, dense, and high in sulphur. As such, it requires extra processing for it to yield diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, and other oil products. The Guardian noted in January that this type of extra-heavy crude is “precisely” what some U.S. refineries were built to treat.
Per the BBC, there are 132 refineries in the U.S. that run on a mix of crude oils, with nearly 70 percent of America’s refining capacity running most efficiently with heavier crude. As the U.S. imports a minimal amount of oil from the Middle East, an increase in Venezuelan oil imports will translate to a larger availability in the U.S., which the BBC noted should translate into cheaper gas prices. According to the BBC, only eight percent of the oil imported by the U.S. came from the Middle East.
“We think we can take that up another 50 percent so call it somewhere around 350,000 to 400,000 barrels a day of just the Chevron share of our position in Venezuela,” Walz said.
The Chevron representatives emphasized to the BBC that the company believes importing Venezuelan crude oil will end up benefiting customers, noting that the “Iran war is just currently masking the gains.”
“When things do get back to normal, that additional supply out of Venezuela will actually translate to lower prices for Americans. So it will in the future, but it isn’t having an impact now,” Walz told the BBC.
“While we’re able to still get crude available here to this refinery because of our relatively local supply, the overall pricing of that crude has gone up because it’s based off of world markets,” Potter explained.
Chevron is presently the only U.S. company in Venezuela capable of extracting crude oil, allowing it to process it itself and get it directly to the U.S. consumer. Over the past weeks, the United States has issued general licenses to a small group of companies allowing them to purchase Venezuelan oil directly from the state-owned oil company PDVSA through a process that involves strict U.S. oversight and without violating existing oil sanctions. Proceeds from the sales remain under U.S. control through bank accounts managed by the Treasury Department.
Get the oil flowing and make the issue of the Strait become irrelevant.
Also the Gulf States need to make it irrelevant for themselves by making other modes and routes of transport a reality. This is not the year 1926...it is 2026.
It’s not how much we’re importing. It’s how much Venezuela is producing. If refine their crude ours can go to other places.
After the Trump meeting with oil industry execs, Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Venezuela is “uninvestable” in the country’s current state.
Assuming the relative peace in our region holds that was one clean *ss operation in Venezuela.
Did you read the article before posting?
It will only go to refineries that can process Heavy Crude, which a majority of our refineries have the ability to do.
Don’t be a patt of the FreeRepublic “Yeah, but” brigade.
It’s a bad trollish look!
I bet China thrilled about it not going to waste, since they aren’t there taking it.
And yet here is Chevron stating the exact opposite.
Who you going to believe?
The guy who just delivered a 400,000 barrel ship to an American port or the other guy that has zero skin in the game?
Saudis need to build a pipeline from the oil fields across Israel and then either to Israeli or Egyptian ports.
I don’t think he was being a troll. I think he was simply saying if U.S. refineries are needed to process Venezuelan oil, and we have more than we need, our oil can go somewhere else and be reminded there. Either way, we get money both for refining and drilling.
“After the Trump meeting with oil industry execs, Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Venezuela is “uninvestable” in the country’s current state.”
Woods is being political and cutting Exxon’s throat. The smaller, hungrier and more nimble energy companies will come in and make bank.
You should thank Dr. Sivana for correcting you. I don’t have the patience.
My point was that the only way Venezuela oil goes somewhere else is if they have the capacity to process Heavy Crude.
Add in the fact that the current Venezuelan leadership has every reason to fear President Trump and toe his line (so to speak) and the probability of any of that crude going anywhere except to American refineries drops to near zero.
My apologies to DIRTYSECRET if I was too harsh.
Too many trolls posting on FR these days.
Yeah that was over three months ago, and Chevron disagrees, btw. Are you letting AI do your thinking for you?
Yup!
Chevron already had existing investments in Venezuela - remember the execs held hostage by the communist government there? (Looks like that might have been in 2018.) So they are pumping oil they already had a right to, with their own equipment. Probably a little new investment in deferred maintenance and repairs, but no huge new capital expenses at risk.
Citgo execs were also taken hostage (and held longer), but they worked for a subsidiary of the state oil company.
Chevron operates the only producing fields in Venezuela because they've been protecting them since the Chavez takeover.
It's only uninvestable to the other oil companies, but not for Chevron.
-PJ
Probably non donors too.
Reading about the strait-and extra heavy crude oil made me think of that Dire Straits song “Heavy Fuel” for some reason-
“My life makes perfect sense
Lust and food and violence
Sex and money are my major kicks
Get me in a fight, I like the dirty tricks
‘Cause if you wanna run cool
If you wanna run cool
Yes, if you wanna run cool, you got to run
On heavy, heavy fuel”
Currently, there are only a few refineries in Texas (Port Arthur) and Louisiana that were designed and built to process Venezuelan crude, and those refineries are operating near capacity right now.
-PJ
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