
Venezuela will deploy vessels to a key oil-exporting hub near Colombia in response to the US’s decision to send warships to the southern Caribbean.
Venezuela’s ships, which will be larger than “patrolling” vessels, are headed north of Lake Maracaibo and the Gulf of Venezuela, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on social media. The vessels will be positioned in Venezuela’s oil cradle in a port key to both Chevron Corp.’s shipments to the US and PDVSA’s exports to China.
The move comes after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the deployment of 15,000 troops, as well as surveillance drones, to the Colombian border to counter US military activities in the region. The US last week said it would send warships to waters off Venezuela to address what Washington sees as the threat from drug cartels.
Chevron’s Petroboscan oil venture, in Lake Maracaibo, pumps about 100,000 barrels a day of heavy asphalt crude that the company exports from the Gulf of Venezuela. In May, about half of the company’s total output was shipped from the area to fuelmakers on the Gulf Coast, including Valero Energy Corp., Phillips 66, PBF Energy Inc., and Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi. In April, two out of seven ships bound for the US departed from Lake Maracaibo, according to Bloomberg data.
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