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Venezuelan oil exports hampered by lack of dredging

2023-01-10 Tamara Parkin

1001232 // instituto_nacional_de_canalizaciones.jpg (178 K)

Photo Credit: Instituto Nacional de Canalizaciones

Chevron's efforts to load tankers and bring heavy crude to the US from Venezuela have been significantly hampered by a lack of dredging of Lake Maracaibo's channel. In November 2022, the US government authorised American energy company Chevron to resume operational control of its joint ventures in Venezuela and begin exporting heavy oil. However, the channel's shallow depths interrupted the plan to quickly move the oil from inventories at Petroboscan, a joint venture between Chevron and state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). 

The channel's shallow waters have been causing issues since last year when a non-Chevron-related vessel carrying metal went aground in December 2022. Since this incident, Petroboscan has instructed vessels to limit their draft after loading at the Bajo Grande oil terminal.  

Lake Maracaibo is in the northwest of Venezuela, with the dredged channel connecting the lake to the Gulf of Venezuela. The lake’s location is of significant importance due to the surrounding Maracaibo Basin being one of the major oil-producing regions in the world. The channel is suitable for loading tankers with a draft of only up to 9.8m meaning around 250,000 barrels of Boscan heavy crude can move at a time. 

Annual maintenance dredging in Lake Maracaibo has been carried out by the Instituto Nacional de Canalizaciones (LNC), an institution within the Venezuelan department of transport, since 1953. The National Pipeline Institute manages the dredging programme to maintain a navigable channel in Lake Maracaibo with an average depth of 11m. At time of print, it is unclear when the channel was last dredged and why channel depths are not at their required level.

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