Opportunity Crudes

When prompted, officials with the Biden Administration and the US State Department have not given any indication that the US will ease sanctions on Venezuela that have decimated the Latin American country's fuel industry and have led to a dearth of fuel.

Colombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy said on May 11 that local crude production fell 13.1% from March 2020 levels to 744,715 b/d in March 2021 as investment in Colombia's oil patch remains subdued due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to PDVSA documents and tanker tracking data, the South American country exported a total of 25 oil cargoes last month, carrying 688,533 b/d of crude and fuel, which was steady from its March exports.

As a result of COVID-19 outbreaks at 12 oilsands production sites in Alberta as contractors are flying in for maintenance season, some planned maintenance at oilsands upgraders is being postponed.

Canada's CBR exports fell in Feb caused by low output and poor arbitrage.

Due to a combination of lack of investment by state energy firm PDVSA in local oilfields and infrastructure and US sanctions, Venezuelan oil output has fallen from over 2.1MM b/d in 2016 to just 500K b/d last year, and it will take significant investment to return Venezuelan oil production back over 2.0MM b/d.

According to internal PDVSA documents and Refinitiv Eikon data, Venezuela exported 248K b/d of oil directly to China last month, more than double the volumes exported to the country in Feb.

To pursue his climate-change agenda, US President Joe Biden's executive order to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline construction permit on Jan. 20 appeared to deal a final blow to the future of oilsands production in Canada.

According to Refinitiv Commodities Research, Canadian crude output at the end of Dec. was 4.5MM b/d, up 4% from Nov. output of 4.3MM b/d.

During committee deliberations for the 2021-2022 budget, Treasury Board President and Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said the province's exposure to the cancelled Keystone XL pipeline project amounts to nearly $1.3B.