Venezuelan oil exports to the US off 12.5%

In the list of customers of state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela, the United States keeps on sliding, losing weight among its trade priorities.

As a result, Venezuelan oil exports to the United States in the first four months of this current year display a steady decrease in dispatched volumes.

The US Department of Energy noted that in January-April 2012, Venezuela sold the United States 892,000 barrels per day (bpd) on average of crude oil and byproducts, a 12.5% drop compared with the average of 1.02 million bpd recorded in the same term last year.

Taking into account the last available results of April 2012, exports slipped back 9.3% compared with the same month in 2011. In April of this current year, 904,000 bpd of crude oil and byproducts would be sent to the United States, lower than 997,000 bpd in April 2011.

etovar@eluniversal.com