Venezuela Suspends Oil Shipments to Chalmette Refinery in U.S.

(Bloomberg) — Venezuela, the fourth-biggest supplier of foreign crude oil to the U.S., suspended oil shipments to the Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery, which is jointly owned by Venezuela’s state oil company.

“Right now we’re not sending anything,” Venezuela’s Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters today in Caracas. “This isn’t sustainable.”


The Chalmette refinery, which Petroleos de Venezuela SA owns with Exxon Mobil Corp., is relying on oil bought on the spot market, the energy minister said.

Venezuela cut oil sales to Exxon Mobil last month after the Irving, Texas-based company won court orders freezing as much as $12.3 billion in assets owned by Pdvsa, as the company is known. At the time, Venezuela said it would fulfill its contracts with Exxon Mobil joint ventures.

Ramirez said today that Exxon decided to reject crude oil from Venezuela at the Chalmette refinery. A U.K. court today overturned Exxon’s request to freeze the assets.

Bloomberg