According to shipping documents and data, Venezuelan oil exports in June were mostly flat at 760,000 barrels a day (bpd), as U.S. licences supported the half of shipments for destinations within Europe and the U.S.

Washington decided in April not to renew the broad license which had allowed Venezuela to export oil freely since last year. Since then, it has issued individual licenses for companies that want to do business in the South American nation.

According to preliminary data based on tanker movements, 44 tankers left Venezuelan waters in the last month. They carried an average of 762,033 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and fuel, and 350,000 tons of petroleum byproducts and chemicals.

The figures were lower than May when the country export 770,260 BPD of crude oil and fuel, and 614,000 tonnes of byproducts, petrochemicals, and petrochemical byproducts.

Exports by U.S. oil company Chevron to the U.S. from joint ventures made with the state-owned PDVSA have averaged 199,000 barrels per day, a slight drop from the 204.420 barrels per day shipped in May.

The data revealed that the joint ventures whose members include Italy's Eni and Spain's Repsol, as well as France's Maurel & Prom, delivered 145,000 bpd to European refineries in June, up from 113,000 bpd during the previous month.

In June, 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan oil were exported to Asia.

Venezuela wants to increase its oil production to 1,23 million bpd at the end of this year from the 876,000 bpd it has achieved so far in 2018. PDVSA internal documents show that sustained oil exports of over 600,000 barrels per day this year, higher than the same period in 2023, have caused bottlenecks within the oil infrastructure and slowly drained crude inventories.

PDVSA slowly returns to using dark-fleet tanks to transport a large part of its exports to Asia, and Cuba. These shipments do not fall under U.S. licensing and the fleet of PDVSA's own tankers is shrinking.

Exports from Venezuela to Cuba in June averaged 33 700 bpd, which is the same as May's figures.

Data showed that the OPEC nation imported motor fuels and diluents at a rate of 55,000 bpd last month. This is lower than the 78,000 bpd in May.