Venezuela says it can’t pay for equipment needed to dredge a coastal lake that’s key to oil exports, hampering Chevron Corp.’s plan to increase shipments from the South American country.
(Bloomberg) — Venezuela says it can’t pay for equipment needed to dredge a coastal lake that’s key to oil exports, hampering Chevron Corp.’s plan to increase shipments from the South American country.
The government sent a letter to Dutch shipbuilding company Royal IHC saying it would not be able to pay for dredging equipment to dig out Lake Maracaibo, noting that the nation is “financially limited” due to economic sanctions, according to a document seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the plan hasn’t been made public.
Chevron is focused “on supporting safe and reliable operations” in Venezuela in compliance with US sanctions, a spokesperson said without commenting on the dredge work. IHC and PDVSA did not respond to requests for comment.
Lake Maracaibo, a Caribbean inlet the size of Connecticut, has become choked with silt after a century of heavy traffic from oil production. Chevron has asked Venezuela to clean up the lake so its ships don’t run aground as it pushes to increase cargoes to 500,000 barrels per shipment, compared with about 300,000 barrels per shipment in April.
Read More: Chevron Asks Venezuela to Dredge Lake to Double Its Oil Exports
Chevron has increased oil output in Venezuela over recent months after the US eased restrictions on operating there late last year. As a whole, Venezuela has failed to increase oil production to a 2 million target set by Maduro in March of 2022 as it carries out a widespread corruption probe due to billions of missing oil revenue.
–With assistance from Nicolle Yapur.
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