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PDVSA launches Blend 22 exports ahead of May 27 license

expiry

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New crude blend being shipped from Western La Salina port

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Vitol-chartered vessel's hull being cleaned after loading

at La

Salina

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Loading limited to 350,000 bbl due to lack of dredging

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Five Chevron ( CVX )-chartered ships remain idled waiting near

Aruba

April 28 (Reuters) -

Tankers are lining up near an old oil port at Venezuela's

Western region to load crude cargoes and depart from the South

American country before a May 27 deadline set by the U.S. to

wind down operations and exports, according to documents and

data.

U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela is set to inaugurate this month

exports of a new crude grade, Blend 22, to lure customers even

after the expiration of licenses Washington had granted to

companies in the U.S., India and Europe to carry Venezuelan oil

exports.

Because the grade is a blend of crudes produced by

state-owned oil company PDVSA at its Western fields, exports

must be shipped from La Salina, an aging and deteriorated

terminal on the shores of Lake Maracaibo where tankers often get

their hulls stained when docking due to oil leaking from

submarine pipelines.

Vessels also cannot load more than 350,000 barrels of

crude in that area because of Lake Maracaibo's lack of dredging.

Most PDVSA customers typically avoid La Salina, but as the

deadline approaches for buyers taking Venezuelan oil cargoes

under U.S. licenses, some have taken the risk of loading there,

which has begun triggering delays and a bottleneck of tankers

waiting at Maracaibo's anchorage, the documents and ship

monitoring data showed.

A vessel chartered by trading house Vitol to load a

250,000-barrel cargo of Blend 22 allocated by PDVSA to France's

Maurel & Prom is having its hull cleaned this week

after it completed loading last week, according to one of the

documents.

The companies are scheduled to take a similar cargo after

that as part of an oil swap that involves heavy naphtha for

Venezuela, and three more could follow pending an agreement with

PDVSA, according to a source close to the talks.

The neighboring Bajo Grande terminal, which was used by

Chevron ( CVX ) to ship crude from one of its joint ventures

before PDVSA this month canceled the cargoes it had allocated to

the U.S. firm, is now being used by the state company to load

Boscan heavy crude for floating storage, the documents showed.

Of about a dozen vessels Chevron ( CVX ) had near Venezuelan ports

earlier this month before the cargo cancellations, five remain

close to Aruba waiting for directions, while the others were

sent to pick up cargoes elsewhere, according to LSEG ship data.

PDVSA, M&P and Chevron ( CVX ) did not immediately reply to requests

for comment. Vitol declined to comment.

President Nicolas Maduro's government has criticized

Washington's hardening of sanctions on the country and said the

measures amount to an "economic war."