If the U.S. expands sanctions on Venezuela to include the oil industry and restricts U.S. exports of oil products that are crucial for diluting Venezuela’s extra-heavy oil, oil production in the country sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves would further collapse. According to data by the EIA compiled by Bloomberg , Venezuela’s imports of heavy naphtha from the U.S.—all of which comes from Gulf Coast refineries—are some 2 million barrels per month. Oil production in the Orinoco oil belt, responsible for half of Venezuela’s crude oil production of currently around 1.6 million bpd, depends on the imports of this heavy naphtha from the U.S., which is blended with the thick tar-like extra-heavy oil to allow it to flow through pipelines from Orinoco to Venezuela’s coasts for loading onto tankers. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the U.S. was considering extending sanctions against Venezuela […]