PetroChina’s Guangdong Petrochemical Complex Imports Venezuelan Crude Cargo

PetroChina's Guangdong Petrochemical complex in the southern Guangdong province will receive its first Venezuelan Merey crude cargo around 23 March, a source told S&P Commodity Insights.

• The refinery was commissioned in February 2023 and has been designed to process heavy sour crude, the source added. Venezuelan Merey crude needs to be mixed with other crudes before being fed into crude distillation units due to its high sulfur content, a source said.
• The Panama-flagged 306,206 dwt VLCC Elysia departed the Jose oil export terminal on 2 February and will call Jieyang port around March 23 to discharge 289,000 mt of Merey crude, shipping data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea showed.
• Chinese crude oil imports in February were mostly stable on the month at 44.14mn tons, but up by 8.4% year on year, with more sanctioned barrels arriving in China, official customs data showed.
• China imported 352,000 tons of crude oil from Venezuela in February, the first shipments since September 2019.
• China also ramped up imports from Malaysia last month to 4.71mn tons, up from 4.22mn tons a month earlier. China typically uses Malaysian imports as a way of disguising barrels from sanctioned nations like Iran and Venezuela.