Similarly to the previous months, Venezuelan crude oil shipments to the United States slightly increased in November compared to the previous year, and particularly to November 2006, but byproducts exports reinforced their downward trend.

Based on the data provided by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US Energy Department's statistical arm, Venezuela's crude oil sales to the United States averaged 1.22 million bpd last November, an increase of 6,000 bpd (0.5 percent) in comparison to October 2007 and 139,000 bpd (12.7 percent) above October 2006.

But shipments of oil byproducts went down from 167,000 bpd in October to 148,000 bpd last November. Shipments of byproducts dropped 22.4 percent from 281,000 bpd in January-November 2006 to 218,000 bpd in the same period in 2007.

Including crude oil and byproducts, Venezuela placed in the US last November an average of 1.37 million bpd of hydrocarbons. This represents a fall of 13,000 bpd (0.93 percent) compared to October, but an increase of 94,000 bpd (7.3 percent) versus the same month in 2006.

However, in January-November last year, Venezuela's hydrocarbons supplies to the US were below 1.36 million bpd, which means a decrease of 74,000 bpd (5.18 percent) compared to shipments in the same period in 2006.