Tankers Wait a Month as Venezuela Hits an Oil Export Ceiling

Venezuela’s oil exports are constrained not by demand but by infrastructure. Tankers are reportedly waiting up to 30 days to load crude as aging terminals, power outages, equipment failures and crude-quality issues create a de facto export ceiling near 1.25 million barrels per day. Despite stronger production and inventory drawdowns, PDVSA has struggled to lift exports materially above that level. The bottleneck matters for global oil flows because more than 500,000 bpd is already going to U.S. refineries, and traders such as Vitol and Trafigura have moved large volumes under Washington-backed arrangements. The article suggests that without port improvements, Venezuela’s production recovery will not translate into meaningfully higher exports, limiting incremental supply to the market and potentially supporting crude prices if the constraint persists.