- ENERGÍA
The cost of moving Venezuelan crude to the US Gulf Coast has multiplied two and a half times in nine months, and the two houses that ship more than half of exports want the discount to absorb it.
Flete de José al Golfo en unos US$5 por barril, contra US$1,90 al abrir el año · oferta de 18 a 20 dólares bajo Brent, sin confirmación de las partes · PDVSA pactó 12 y 13 con socios de mixtas
affects anyone who priced this month's memorandum against the barrel, not against the barrel delivered at the refinery
- MULTILATERALES
The International Monetary Fund has dated its permanent presence in Venezuela and will host a resident representative there.
Oficina de representación en Caracas fechada en el primer semestre de 2027 · el 3 de septiembre era una posibilidad en estudio · sin consulta del Artículo IV desde 2004
affects anyone who needs a third-party-verified macro series to defend a case before an investment committee
- GEOPOLÍTICA
The US president defended the January operation and the August oil agreement at the multilateral forum, and described what was obtained as spoils.
Discurso del martes 22 ante la Asamblea General · «al vencedor le pertenece el botín» · sin instrumento nuevo ni cambio en las licencias vigentes
affects anyone signing under the August framework who needs to know how the stronger party describes it in public
This month's memorandums were signed with Brent in three digits. On Tuesday it closed below $100. The houses that ship more than half of what leaves the country are bidding $18 to $20 under that benchmark, and with some joint-venture partners Petróleos de Venezuela had settled at $12 and $13. The International Monetary Fund dated its Caracas office to 2027's opening months, and what it installs there is technical assistance. The General Assembly speech leaves doctrine on the record and the licenses in force untouched. The test arrives with OPEC's monthly report: if September's formula price gives way against August's while Brent averaged higher, the discount has stopped being a request.
The number of domains the country's main internet providers keep restricted, according to the public registry maintained by the organization Ve Sin Filtro.
The registry fell: eighteen domains reopened from September 16. The telecommunications commission announced the restoration on the 17th, on instruction from the Presidency, and processed it as a technical notification to providers. That is the measure's limit: each operator applied it its own way, and there are domains open on one network and closed on another, through different blocking methods. Among those still restricted are national investigative and general-news outlets. For anyone assessing a Venezuelan counterparty, the number measures how much local archive stays reachable from inside the country.
Chartering a tanker from José to the US Gulf costs about $5 a barrel, against $1.90 at the start of the year, and on top of that Vitol and Trafigura want a deeper Merey discount than the one PDVSA settled.
Chartering an Aframax tanker from the José terminal in Anzoátegui to the US Gulf Coast costs about $5 a barrel, against $1.90 at the start of the year, according to maritime data firm Signal Maritime. Global tanker rates are at record highs. On top of that cost, Vitol and Trafigura are bidding Merey at $18 to $20 under Brent for cargoes bound for the United States or Europe. That figure, reported on Tuesday the 22nd, comes from five unidentified sources: both houses declined to comment on it and Petróleos de Venezuela did not respond.
Signal Maritime y operadores del mercado — vía Reuters ↗Flete José-Golfo ~US$5/bbl contra US$1,90 en enero (Signal Maritime) · oferta de 18-20 bajo Brent, sin confirmar · PDVSA pactó 12-13 con socios · Merey de fórmula US$76,82 en agostoHeavy crude trades delivered at the refinery: freight and price travel in the same account, and Merey has no pipeline alternative to the Gulf, so it absorbs the full rise. Between what the state company settled with joint-venture partners and what the trading houses are bidding there is a gap of five to eight dollars. The freight increase since January, $3.10, covers part of it; the rest is a negotiation between different counterparties.
The Gulf Coast refiner buying delivered: it pays less for the same crude and does not carry the freight. And the mid-size tanker owner, collecting a rate at record levels.
Whoever holds a claim on the value of the exported barrel. Royalties and per-barrel levies go into a US Treasury account, so what narrows is the accrued base, not a till Caracas controls.
INDICADORThe Merey formula price Venezuela reports to OPEC for September. · En el informe mensual del mercado petrolero de la OPEP correspondiente a octubre; la organización lo publica a mediados de mes.
Kristalina Georgieva confirmed on Monday, leaving her meeting with the acting president in New York, that the Fund will open a representation office in Caracas sometime during 2027's opening months.
Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, placed the opening of a representation office in Caracas sometime in 2027's opening months. She said so on Monday the 21st, leaving her meeting with Delcy Rodríguez in New York. The institution announced the resumption of dealings with Venezuela on April 16, 2026, after a pause that began in 2019, and the country has not completed an Article IV consultation since September 2004. In early September the office was still described as a possibility under study.
FMI — vía Bloomberg ↗Oficina de representación en Caracas en la primera mitad de 2027 · sin Artículo IV desde septiembre de 2004 · trato reanudado el 16-abr-2026 tras pausa desde 2019 · el 3-sep era posibilidad en estudioA representation office does not lend: it is the channel through which an institution receives data and delivers technical assistance on the ground. Its value to an investor is the statistical series it produces later. Venezuela has not completed an Article IV consultation since 2004, and without that document there is no independent macroeconomic assessment against which to price country risk. Credit also requires clearing the arrears, and that conversation has no date.
Whoever must defend a Venezuelan investment case before a committee and can today bring only the republic's own figures: it gains the prospect of third-party-audited data, dated 2027.
Whoever sold multilateral re-engagement as access to financing. An office does not disburse, and the calendar just set begins six months from now.
INDICADORThe institution's own publication of the opening, or the convening of an Article IV consultation. · El organismo sitúa la apertura en la primera mitad de 2027, que arranca el 1 de enero. Sus anuncios institucionales salen en su propia sala de prensa.
Donald Trump defended the January operation against Nicolás Maduro and the oil agreement that followed before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, with the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils".
Donald Trump devoted part of his Tuesday speech to the UN General Assembly to the January operation that captured Nicolás Maduro and the energy agreement signed with the acting government. “To the victor belong the spoils, you've all heard that,” he said, presenting what was done in Venezuela as proof that the United States will not allow a threat to gain a foothold in the Western Hemisphere. Adding the two countries together, he said, gives more than 60% of the world's oil: “It was a war, but it's perhaps the biggest deal ever made.” He announced no new instrument and changed no license conditions.
Presidencia de EE. UU. — vía CBS News ↗Discurso del 22-sep · «al vencedor le pertenece el botín» · «fue una guerra, pero es quizá el mayor acuerdo jamás hecho» · más del 60% del petróleo mundial entre ambos países · 21 licencias sin cambiosA General Assembly speech neither creates nor modifies rights. It fixes in the public record the doctrine with which the US side describes the agreement, and the two terms chosen — spoils and war — name a transfer by conquest, not a contract between parties. Whoever signs under that framework is contracting with a counterparty that has just characterized it that way in the most public forum there is. The 21 general licenses sustaining the operation today are unchanged.
The operator that already holds a license and was looking for political continuity: the August framework received explicit backing from the US head of government, said where it goes on the record.
The adviser who takes the August framework to a risk committee as a contract between equals. The term left on the record was chosen by the stronger party, and chosen in public.
INDICADORA note from the Venezuelan delegation on the passage, or its use by another delegation in the right of reply. · El debate general de la Asamblea corre hasta el 29 de septiembre de 2026, y la presidenta encargada interviene el jueves 24.
HOW OUR CALLS ARE DOING
indicators we issued in earlier editionsA statement from either party on the meeting with the US president, or an instrument signed during the week in New York.
The meeting took place at 7:40 on Tuesday evening at a Manhattan hotel, on the margins of a reception for heads of delegation, and the White House kept it closed to the press. It is the first face-to-face between a Venezuelan and a US head of state in more than eleven years, and its format ranked below the bilaterals held the same day with France, the United Kingdom and Japan. At this edition's close neither party had issued a statement and no instrument had been signed. The week's own record moves to Thursday the 24th, when the acting president addresses the Assembly.
Whether Thursday's round closes with a document signed by both delegations, and whether the August 12 mandate on the Bank of England assets produces any filing in the English case.
Both delegations declared themselves in permanent session through today, Wednesday the 23rd, and installed a technical table on freedom of expression and the right to information. On the gold, what is reported is a negotiation to move some 31 tonnes from the Bank of England to the United States: it would grant legal control over the metal and bar its sale, leaving it as collateral for a loan rather than an available reserve. None of the official parties has confirmed it, and the British central bank conditions any movement on a court order.