Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA has started mixing its extra heavy oil with domestic Santa Barbara light crude due to a shortage of imported diluents following U.S. sanctions imposed last week, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. PDVSA typically imports some 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of naphtha, mostly from the United States, to dilute up to 400,000 bpd of extra heavy oil produced by joint ventures at the vast Orinoco Belt, Venezuela’s largest producing region, and make it exportable. But the new sanctions imposed on PDVSA, which are aimed at diverting oil revenue away from the hands of socialist President Nicolas Maduro, bar U.S. exports of diluents to Venezuela. They also limit transactions […]