By Georgina McCartney and Arathy Somasekhar
HOUSTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Valero has bought a cargo of Venezuelan crude oil, two sources said on Wednesday, “the first deal by a U.S. Gulf Coast refiner” as part of Washington’s deal with Caracas to buy up to 50 million barrels of crude from the South American country.
Valero bought the crude from trading house Vitol, one of the two sources said. The crude was traded for delivery to the U.S. Gulf Coast at a discount of about $8.50 to $9.50 to Brent crude, two sources said.
Although Valero has been a buyer of Venezuelan crude through Venezuelan state oil company partner Chevron, the deal would mark the first purchase from trading companies that were only allowed this month to market crude from Venezuela.
Offers of heavy Venezuelan Merey crude to U.S. refiners began last week at a discount of between $6 and $7.50 per barrel to Brent.
Before sanctions were imposed in 2019, several large U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast purchased and processed about 800,000 barrels per day of heavy oil from Venezuela, according to U.S. government data.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
