A crude tanker chartered by Trafigura, part of a 50-million-barrel supply deal agreed to this month between Caracas and Washington, departed on Sunday from Venezuela’s Jose port to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP).
The Liberia-flagged Gloria Maris departed carrying 1 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude, the first of the deal announced. As part of the deal, trading houses Vitol and Trafigura have received a US license to load and export Venezuelan oil.
The cargoes will be shipped to storage terminals in the Caribbean, with further selling to refiners worldwide from the terminal.
Apart from Gloria Maris, A smaller tanker, the Barbados-flagged Volans, also departed from Jose on Sunday carrying 450,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude to the Bullen Bay terminal in Curacao.
The plans for exporting fuel oil are underway.