Algeria, Angola, Iran and Nigeria are interested in blending their light oil with Venezuela’s heavy crude to get a better price, the president of Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. said.
PDVSA is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil, as well as exploration and production of natural gas.
Eulogio Del Pino, who is on a two-day official visit to New Delhi, in April announced talks on a novel plan to blend the country’s heavy crude with light oil from other OPEC allies, seeking to create a new variety that can compete against swelling US and Canadian supplies.
“We have several countries interested in doing that because that means synergies,” Del Pino was quoted by Reuters as saying in an interview. “Nigeria is interested, Algeria, Iran. ... Angola too,” he added ahead of a meeting with Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The proposal, which would expand on a pilot scheme last year that involved Algerian oil, envisions supplying refineries built for medium-grade crudes rather than the light oil that has become plentiful as a result of the North American shale boom.
Del Pino, who took the reins of Petroleos de Venezuela in September, added the company was mulling importing light crude or using its own during an upgrader maintenance scheduled for the end of the year. PDVSA’s new leadership is eyeing creative solutions at a time of intensifying market competition, and is also seeking to ride out a slump in oil prices that has worsened Venezuela’s recession.
Venezuela’s current oil output stands at about 3 million barrels per day, said Del Pino, who added the South American nation is exporting about 400,000 bpd to India and about 800,000 bpd to key ally China.
