Diluent: the U.S. input without which Venezuelan crude does not move
An Orinoco barrel measures 7 to 10 degrees API and does not enter a pipeline without being thinned first. The naphtha that thins it stopped being produced domestically and now arrives from the United States under a February license that also requires reporting every transaction to Washington every ninety days.
A barrel freshly lifted from the Orinoco Belt measures between 7 and 10 degrees API. At that density it does not enter a pipeline or load onto a tanker: it has to be thinned first with a light hydrocarbon. That liquid is called diluent, and since February Venezuela has been buying it from the United States under a permit Washington renews at its own discretion.
Extra-heavy crude is close to solid at ambient temperature. Moving it requires adding naphtha, natural gas condensate or light crude until it reaches a density the transport system will accept. The reference ratio in Venezuela is three barrels of extra-heavy for one of light, and the result is Merey 16: the roughly 16-degree API blend, 3.6% sulfur, that gets exported.
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