Crude inventories at Venezuela’s export terminal, Jose, have surpassed their highest levels since August, surging to 11.8 million barrels (mmbbl) as of October 24, more than double the 5.6 mmbbl registered a month earlier, according to Reuters.

Due to oversupply and a constantly waning storage space, Venezuela’s national oil company PDVSA could be forced to cut back production as happened earlier in the year. 

This sudden decline in demand can be attributed to the approaching US sanctions on Venezuelan oil. This will affect IOCs such as Spain’s Repsol, Italy’s Eni SpA, and Thailand’s Tipco Asphalt.

In the short term, there is only one Tipco Asphalt tanker expected to load from Jose and will take a total of 1 mmbbl. 

As of October 24, Sinovensa was producing 78,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of Merey, down from 160,000 bbl/d two weeks ago, while Petropiar’s output was steady at 115,000 bbl/d.