BENCHMARK CRUDE · VENEZUELA
Merey Crude
Merey is Venezuela's benchmark heavy crude; it trades at a variable discount to Brent and defines the country's revenue per exported barrel.
VE Pulses
40Venezuela oil exports fall 25% in October as PDVSA holds the line on price despite freight
In September traders were asking for a discount to cover freight; in October PDVSA did not grant it, and it was volume that gave way.
PDVSA gives six to seven years to the million barrels NABEP calls near-term
Until now NABEP set the timeline for the million barrels; a PDVSA vice president has just given a much longer one, and the operator’s latest figure covers a single day.
Delcy Rodríguez orders state assets valued for sale or return to their former owners
In April, a commission was tasked with classifying the state’s holdings; since Thursday, those the state deems non-essential are being valued to be offered to private buyers or returned, with no list or timetable yet.
Venezuela's BCV and Finance Ministry bet on two-digit inflation in 2027 with no target for the bolívar
The target requires breaking 2026's pace, and the agreement rests it on two things Caracas does not control: oil revenue, held in custody by Washington, and foreign lending.
Venezuela's election clock starts with a vacancy Washington places after a new TSJ and a new CNE
The State Department published on Monday the order it expects: the Supreme Court first, then an electoral council with no power to bar candidates and, last, the vacancy that opens the election. Caracas has not confirmed it.
Machado returns to Caracas with no public guarantees from the government and outside the dialogue table
Until Saturday, the opposition leader was trying to return from Panama; since Sunday she is in Caracas, with a travel ban and a disqualification that, by reported accounts, remain in force, and outside a table that put off electoral council reform.
From 132,000 to 44,000: SENIAT cuts the list of special taxpayers that withhold VAT
Those who leave the list stop withholding the tax from their suppliers and file it once a month, not every two weeks. Fiscal printers, meanwhile, stopped being mandatory on Wednesday.
What comes first for Citgo: the Third Circuit ruling or the OFAC license Amber needs?
The judges heard Venezuela, PDVSA and Gold Reserve on Wednesday without setting a date to rule, and the $5.9 billion bid remains approved in the meantime.
Rubio wants Reliance to refine more Venezuelan crude, with Maduro-era sanctions still in place
The United States already takes more than half of the crude Venezuela exports; its secretary of state visits the owner of the world's largest refining complex today to get it to process more, and concedes there are prior sanctions to work through, without saying which.
The World Bank's first loan to Venezuela since 2005 waits on the country paying its overdue debt to the IDB and CAF
Venezuela has not received a World Bank loan since 2005; the bank now has a portfolio, an amount and a first operation for water and electricity, and the next step is the country's: catching up with the other multilateral lenders.
Venezuelan crude halves its discount to Brent in two months
In July, the Venezuelan benchmark sold $16.61 below Brent; in September, $8.27. With output nearly flat, the month's gain came from price.
Calixto Ortega takes the IMF a plan for the bolívar to cover every domestic transaction in Venezuela
Before the Fund, the vice president for the economy ruled out dollarization. The plan published by the central bank leaves the dollar to foreign trade and sets two-digit inflation as the condition, with no date to reach it.
The round of talks Washington announced for Wednesday the 14th puts the Supreme Court ahead of the electoral council
After two rounds in Caracas, Washington put the order of the negotiation in writing: first the 32 justices, by December; the overhaul of the electoral authority, in rounds that still have no date.
Pacific Coast Energy promises to double crude output at two PDVSA blocks claimed by former partners
On July 30 the company said it was finalizing the contracts; on October 7 it confirmed it runs both blocks with full operational control. Its release mentions no OFAC license and none of the partners claiming the fields.
A ruptured gas line leaves Cardón, PDVSA's second-largest refinery, shut with no restart date
Cardón was already running without one crude unit and its catalytic cracker, idled in September for lack of feedstock; now all its plants are in emergency shutdown. PDVSA rules out major damage and says it has inventories, but sets no date to restart.
Domestic market first, LNG later: the order of Baker Hughes' gas alliance with PDVSA
The official note on Friday the 2nd's meeting with the acting president mentioned no signing; on Monday the 5th, Baker Hughes announced a framework signed with PDVSA and two US partners. Each project will need its own definitive agreement and an OFAC authorization.
The State Department swears in the Maduro case that only Delcy Rodríguez can act for Venezuela
March's recognition rested on a statement and a speech by Trump. Since Friday the 2nd it rests on a sworn declaration, which prosecutors in New York are using to deny Maduro head-of-state immunity.
The United States took almost six of every ten barrels of oil Venezuela exported in September
Venezuela exported 9% less oil in September than in August, while trading houses pressed for bigger discounts to cover freight. Shipments fell to Europe and India and rose to the United States.
One Planta Centro unit in Carabobo carries almost half of Corpoelec's 1,300-megawatt plan
The state power company's plan adds 1,300 megawatts through December from existing units returning to service. It does not say how many of the 4,800 thermal megawatts the acting president set in August for year-end are already online.
Venezuelan methanol enters an OFAC license when it was already almost a quarter of US imports
Metor, the Jose plant in which the state holds 37.5%, kept selling in the United States while sanctions were in force. Since Monday the license names the product and lets the state partner in, with its payment routed to the Treasury account.
Freight from José to the Gulf went from $1.90 to $5 a barrel and it is pressing the price of Merey
Until now the argument about the Venezuelan barrel was how much gets produced and who buys it. The cost of moving it has multiplied two and a half times in nine months, and the houses that ship more than half of exports want that difference taken out of the price.
The IDB puts Venezuela's power grid in a two-year plan and the debt owed to the bank stays undated
The bank stopped approving new loans to Venezuela in May 2018. Its president described on Monday the missions preparing the document for the next two years, without saying how the overdue payments get settled or when disbursement could resume.
TotalEnergies signs with PDVSA without being one of the six companies Washington authorizes by name
The annex that names authorized operators in writing has not added a company since June. On Saturday one that is not on it signed at Miraflores, and no fields, amounts or timetable were disclosed.
Heeney Capital takes El Callao's gold in Guayana with a concession
In May, the same parties signed a memorandum of understanding over that district; on Wednesday, in Houston, they signed the concession. Between one instrument and the other lies a difference of legal category, and it decides whether a right can be enforced.
BCV scraps the commercial credit ceiling and makes 16% the floor for bolivar loans
The repealed resolution set a band: no more than 16% a year, no less than 13%. The one in force since Tuesday deletes the ceiling and leaves that same 16% as the minimum. The bank's press note announced what it will pay on deposits; what borrowing will cost sits in the official gazette.
OFAC's GL 52C lets a sanctioned official sign for PDVSA
Until last night, a sanctioned officer signing was enough to make the transaction prohibited, and the contract stalled in its last box. The same document closes the door on the Citgo structure in Delaware, by name.
Chevron will pay for Carabobo out of its joint ventures' cash, declaring a total cost under $20 a barrel
The September 2 release said how much it would invest and over what period. What Mike Wirth added on Friday says where the money comes from — whatever cash the three operating joint ventures generate, with none brought in from outside.
Merey gained more from price in August than PDVSA gained from every extra barrel
OPEC published price and volume in the same table on Thursday, and they do not weigh the same. On the month's volume, the price rise added some eleven million dollars a day; the extra barrels added seventy-seven thousand.
Nabors dates its Venezuela return for 2027; NABEP, Washington's operator, counted six rigs this year
The deal's operator placed six rigs drilling before December. The two suppliers that filed on Tuesday with the securities regulator date something else: one rig starting in 2027 and components for ten more only now leaving the United States.
Washington pays nothing for 35% of NABEP and can veto every board appointment
The first reading was that of a passive stake. The official fact sheet documents the opposite: a mandatory U.S.-citizen majority on the board. What it does not document is whether that third is shares or the right to buy them.
India and Europe absorbed in August the barrels PDVSA stopped sending to the United States
Total loadings did not move. What moved was the split: the United States came off a July record and fell, India rose by two thirds and Europe nearly tripled.
Eni replaces PDVSA at Junín-5: the field produces 5% of what was promised for 2018
Since 2010 the field was run by a joint venture with PDVSA holding 60% and the spending shared. The contract Eni signed on Wednesday takes it out of the operation and, on the terms January's law set, leaves the state carrying no debt: the operator is paid a percentage of metered barrels.
Selling Venezuelan coal without sanctions risk now means paying into an account the Treasury names
The mining licenses spoke of minerals and gold and named a single company, Minerven. The three issued on Wednesday add coal and Carbones del Zulia, the state firm that mines it in the Guasare basin in the country's west.
Washington reserves first call on every barrel from the seventeen fields
Until Friday the deal was a post on a social network. The document the White House published sets a veto over every board appointment, a fifth of output at production cost, and the right to buy the rest before anyone else.
The law governing a contract with PDVSA stops being decided in Washington
Since January the U.S. permit required that contract to be drafted under the law of a U.S. state. Eight licenses rewritten yesterday strike the requirement and leave standing only the seat where a dispute is fought: the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Singapore.
Money paid up front for a Venezuelan home stops passing through the builder's hands
Until now the developer took the buyer's down payment and put it to work. The text passed on Friday routes it into a trust that releases funds only against construction progress certified by an independent engineer.
Washington clears the rebuilding of Venezuela's network and leaves the capital waiting on another license
Through Thursday the telecommunications license covered carrying traffic; since Friday it covers installing, repairing and operating the plant itself. Putting capital into it still needs a permit that does not exist yet.
The United States supplies the naphtha Venezuela uses to thin the crude it then sells back
The US under secretary of energy put a number on both directions of the flow: more than 500,000 barrels a day of crude leave for that country's refineries, and more than 100,000 of naphtha come in so the crude can move at all.
Venezuela's second-quarter growth was led by banking, not by manufacturing
The Central Bank certifies 7.14% expansion and breaks it down: financial activities 26.26%, construction 16.11%. Manufacturing, measured by its own trade group, advanced 6.5% with nearly half its plant unlit.
Venezuela's exchange no longer values companies: it lends to them, and that is 96.5% of its volume
The country has a capital market that works, though not to value companies: it works to fund them short-term, the one thing banks cannot do today.
Analysis
01Sector Briefs
06Venezuela upstream October 2026: Merey made the quarter that production did not
Venezuela reported 1,206,000 barrels a day to OPEC for September, 5,000 more than in August, while Merey rose $16.93 to $93.75. PDVSA counts 61 signed agreements, and the first start-up declared to a regulator points to the end of 2026.
Venezuela upstream August 2026: the framework stopped being the question and the rate now decides
The Ministry of Hydrocarbons denied an extension of the contract migration deadline. Chevron declared 280,000 bpd in its joint ventures and confirmed it is negotiating fiscal terms. The United States absorbed ~786,000 bpd in July, the highest since early 2019.
Venezuela refining August 2026: the country produces as in 2019 and converts at a quarter of capacity
The country produces crude at seven-year highs and refines at a quarter of installed capacity. Art. 43 of the Regulation grants up to −5 points of the rate to projects with integrated upgrading or refining: the only incentive aimed at that gap.
Venezuela Upstream July 2026: LOH Regulation drops PDVSA (Gaceta 7,052), Repsol signs Horcón MoU, OFAC amends GL 46C-54A, Brent normalizes to $81
The first comprehensive Hydrocarbons Law regulation since 1943 opens upstream to privates without a mandatory joint venture; the VE Score eases from 94 to 84 on Brent's correction (May $104 → July $81), not regulatory deterioration.
Chevron Q1 revela 1–2% del CFO (cash flow operativo) en Venezuela; producción cruza 1.23M bpd y GL 5W señala coordinación con Citgo
Brief VE-ENERGY-UPSTREAM mayo 2026. El upstream entra en fase de ejecución contractual: exportaciones cruzan 1.23M bpd en abril (máximo en 7 años, +14% intermensual), Chevron en su call Q1 (1 may) confirma Venezuela = 1–2% del CFO (cash flow operativo) con cuenta por cobrar de $1.5B en amortización a 2027 y sin compromiso de capex incremental antes de clarificación fiscal. GL 5W (4 may) extiende protección bono PDVSA 2020 hasta 19 jun — extensión más corta en dos años, señal de coordinación Treasury con proceso judicial Citgo en Delaware. Repsol Petroquiriquire, Eni Junín-5 y Maurel & Prom operativos bajo GL 50A.
Production crosses 1 million bpd and majors sign: upstream closes Q1 with complete framework and binding power ceiling
VE-ENERGY-UPSTREAM April 2026 brief. Hydrocarbons reform passed (Jan 29), OFAC GL 52 (Mar 18), formal returns from Eni, Repsol and Chevron in April. Production 1.095M bpd, exports >1M for the first time in 6 months. India overtakes China as top buyer at 343K bpd. Revenues channeled to U.S. Treasury custody via EO 14373. The binding ceiling remains electrical (covered in VE-ENERGY-DOMESTICO).
Related entities
This page aggregates Vene Economist editorial coverage of this entity as reference for institutional investors. It does not constitute investment or legal advice.