https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Venezuelas-Oil-Meltdown-Defies-Belief.html
You’re right about foreign investors. I’m thinking France’s Total. They are one of the few oil majors that have the scale and resources to turn things around, and so far they’ve stuck it out.
Venezuela’s heavy oil needs to be upgraded before it can be exported, but at least three PDVSA upgraders are in terrible shape, and the Petropiar upgrader, which PDVSA runs jointly with Chevron, is offline for maintenance. That is also the site overseen by Chevron employees that were detained by Venezuelan security services a few months ago, putting a chill on operations.
Yeah, Chevron was not pleased at all. Hard to blame them.
Independent refiners from China are looking at heavy crude sources such as Mexico’s Maya, Colombia’s Castilla, and Canada’s Cold Lake Blend, according to S&P Global Platts.
The irony there, especially in the case of Castilla, is that these are some of the places the 25,000 oil workers displaced by Chavez and Maduro have ended up. One more in the long, long list of self-inflicted wounds.