Refiner Valero buys Venezuelan crude from three authorized sellers

By Nicole Jao

NEW YORK, ⁠Jan 29 (Reuters) - Valero ⁠Energy ‍said on Thursday it bought Venezuelan crude oil from three authorized sellers and expects the grade to make up a large ‍part of its refineries' heavy oil diet as early as ​next month.

U.S. refiners are expected to benefit significantly from President Donald Trump's efforts to ​boost output in Venezuela and rebuild the country's dilapidated oil sector following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro this month.

"Valero has engaged with the three authorized sellers and purchased ​barrels from all three," the company said in an email response on Thursday after a conference call. "As stated on the call, we ​expect Venezuelan crude to account for a large share of the heavy crude diet as we move ‌into February and March."

The refiner declined to name the sellers.

Oil major Chevron and trading houses Vitol and Trafigura have ​been authorized by Washington to export Venezuelan ⁠oil to the U.S.

Earlier this month, Valero and Phillips 66 each bought a cargo of Venezuelan crude oil, making ‌them among the first U.S. Gulf Coast refiners to engage in deals that are part of Washington's agreement with Caracas to export up to 50 million barrels.

"We ‌are evaluating Venezuelan crude like we always do for all of our alternatives," said ‌Randy Hawkins, vice president of crude and feedstocks supply and trading, during a call with investors.

The company ran as much as 240,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan heavy ‍crude in its refining system before an expansion at its 435,000-bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, in 2023, which ⁠substantially increased its processing capability of heavy crude oil, Hawkins said. "We expect our Venezuelan processing capability to be substantially north of that number,” he said.

(Reporting by Nicole Jao in New York and Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed, Nia Williams, Rod Nickel)

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