*

A 920,000-barrel cargo of Boscan crude set sail this month

bound

for Malaysia

*

Cargo cancellation has led to stock accumulation in recent

weeks

*

Previous restriction of US licenses led to billions of

dollars

in debt to PDVSA's partners

May 16 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA has

begun exporting a heavy crude oil grade that had been shipped by

Chevron ( CVX ) since 2022, maritime data and documents showed,

following the cancellation of cargoes to the U.S. producer amid

payment uncertainty.

The U.S. Treasury Department in March revoked a key license that

had allowed Chevron ( CVX ) to expand operations in four joint ventures

in sanctioned Venezuela and export its crude to the U.S. after

President Donald Trump criticized the South American country's

record on migration and democracy.

Though the period granted by Washington to wind down

transactions has not ended, PDVSA last month canceled the

cargoes it had scheduled for Chevron ( CVX ), citing the U.S. company's

inability to fully pay for them, and ordered the return of a

couple tankers that had set sail.

PDVSA has taken some steps to reorganize oil output and

crude upgrading since then, increasing supplies to domestic

refineries. But the cargo cancellation has led to an

accumulation of oil inventories in recent weeks, topping up the

state-owned company's available storage at its oilfields in

western Venezuela, and creating a need for floating storage,

according to company documents.

Venezuela's oil exports fell about 10% from the previous month

to some 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April, mainly due to

the standoff with Chevron ( CVX ).

A 920,000-barrel cargo of Venezuela's heavy Boscan crude,

produced by the PDVSA-Chevron joint venture Petroboscan, set

sail earlier this month for Malaysia, a trans-shipping hub for

Venezuelan crude bound for China, one of the maritime documents

showed.

The Suezmax vessel departed from Venezuela's Amuay

ship-to-ship area and is set to arrive in Malaysia around June

20, according to LSEG data and monitoring service

TankerTrackers.com.

Before the cargo cancellations, Venezuela's Boscan crude

was exclusively going to U.S. refineries and being exported by

Chevron ( CVX ).

PDVSA and Chevron ( CVX ) did not immediately reply to requests for

comment. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's socialist

government has rejected the U.S. sanctions, saying they amount

to an "economic war."

In 2020, when Washington restricted licenses for foreign

oil companies to operate in Venezuela, PDVSA accumulated

billions of dollars in pending proceeds and dividends to its

joint venture partners, as it controlled all exports from them.