By Marianna Parraga
HOUSTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Venezuela's PDVSA has
allocated an oil cargo to a unit of Eni for a February loading,
the first to the Italian firm following a contract suspension
this year by new management at the state-run company, people
familiar with the matter said.
Eni and Spanish oil firm Repsol in May
last year received authorizations from the U.S. State Department
to take the crude to Europe for outstanding Venezuela debt and
dividends, an exception to U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela.
The cargo allocations, which worked intermittently last
year, had not happened this year amid a large audit instructed
by PDVSA's new boss Pedro Tellechea to avoid failed payments by
some customers.
Eni received two cargoes of Venezuelan diluted crude in
June-July and two more shipments in November. The crude was
exported in Eni-chartered vessels and delivered partially to
Repsol oil refineries in Spain, according to PDVSA's documents
and vessel monitoring services.
The latest cargo assigned to Eni is scheduled to load
through ship-to-ship transfers at Venezuela's Amuay STS area.
PDVSA recently has struggled to receive larger tankers at its
West coast ports due to infrastructure issues, the people said.
Eni declined to comment on individual transactions but said
it is operating "in compliance with the applicable sanction
regimes."
Repsol and PDVSA did not reply to requests for comment.
U.S. oil major Chevron , which also was authorized by
Washington last year to receive Venezuelan oil cargoes for debt,
in January exported 2.3 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy
crude to the United States.
One cargo has been exported so far in February by Chevron to
its Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery and another is about to
depart Venezuela, monitoring data showed.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Mircely Guanipa
in Maracay, Venezuela; Additional reporting by Francesca
Landini in Milan; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
Messaging: @mariannaparraga))
