A total of 40 vessel departed Venezuelan ports in November carrying 651kbpd of crude oil and oil products, down by 2.3% from October levels, according to Reuters shipping and tanker tracking data, despite the easing of US sanctions.

• PDVSA has recently negotiated cargo sales bound for India through intermediaries.
• Sales through intermediaries stood at 57% of total in November, while Chevron's exports of Venezuelan crude to the US declined to around 144kbpd, from 178kbpd in October.
• Venezuela's crude output averaged 786kbpd in October, according to figures reported to OPEC, below a peak of 820kbpd in August, and below this year’s target of 1mbpd.
• The stagnant production has driven PDVSA to offer trading houses and intermediaries a large portion of its oil stocks for exports. PDVSA's heavy crude inventories from the Orinoco Belt fell to 3.5mn barrels at the end of November, the lowest number so far this year, according to a company document seen by Reuters.