PdV to increase light oil imports to act as diluent
Venezuela's PdV is ramping up imports of light oil to use as diluent at its Orinoco projects
PdV has been importing around 48,000 barrels of light crude a day to its Isla refinery in Curacao, freeing up domestically-produced Mesa and Santa Barbara light crude grades to be used as diluent in the Orinoco oilfields, Jesus Luongo, a senior executive in the downstream and marketing business, said in a statement. Luongo said that the 48,000 barrels a day (b/d) figure is up 15% from 2014, and that light crude imports are expected to rise to around 65,000 b/d in 2016. The Orinoco belt holds vast amounts of extra-heavy oil, but turning it into marketable crude requires post-production upgrading. This has historically been done at a series of upgraders along the country's Caribbean coast, whe
Also in this section
18 February 2026
With marketable supply unlikely to grow significantly and limited scope for pipeline imports, Brazil is expected to continue relying on LNG to cover supply shortfalls, Ieda Gomes, senior adviser of Brazilian thinktank FGV Energia,
tells Petroleum Economist
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
