If the Washington-sanctioned return of the US oil company Chevron Corp. to Venezuela to work alongside the country’s state-owned PDVSA in an effort to maximize oil recovery and export is yet to yield any major development, there are already signs that the restored relationship is realizing some encouraging results.
Having returned to Venezuela late last year, courtesy of a deal reached between Washington and Caracas, an announcement was made recently that Chevron had sold a cargo of Venezuelan oil to another American refiner, reportedly the first such transaction since the sanctions were relaxed. The US oil company named as part of the transaction was Phillips 66, which reportedly bought half a million barrels of extra heavy Venezuelan crude known in the industry as Hamaca and named after the location from where the crude was recovered. That consignment will be reprocessed at the Phillips 66 refiner’s complex in Texas.