Light crude deficit dims PdV's Orinoco ambitions

摘要

The decline of Venezuelan state-owned PdV’s light crude production since 2011 has outpaced its capacity to bring new Orinoco extra-heavy crude output on stream, the company’s just-issued 2015 annual operations report shows. PdV’s inability to check falling production of legacy light grades such as 32°API Mesa implies a growing reliance on light crude imports to blend with Orinoco crude for the production of exportable Merey 16 targeted at the Asia-Pacific market, primarily China.