Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has put a halt to operations at the Petropiar crude upgrader and has stopped crude transport from the company’s Petrosinovensa and Petromonagas projects, according to Reuters.  

The Petropiar upgrader, a joint venture with Chevron at the Orinoco oil belt, halted production due to high inventories. The Orinoco belt had been producing around 400,000 barrels of oil per day (bbl/d) in April and 300,000 bbl/d in early May. However, due to a spike in domestic inventories the PDVSA has cut production to 100,000 bbl/d. 

As a consequence of nearing storage capacity, PDVSA halted crude pumping at two of the largest heavy oil upgraders  in the Orinoco belt, Petrosinovensa and Petromonagas, on June 12. For example, Petrosinovensa, whose normal daily production is 80,000 bbl, produced just over 16,000 bbl on June 12.