Venezuela will stick to its plan of blending domestic and foreign crude to maintain and even increase oil production and exports in the face of sanctions prohibiting U.S. companies from buying the country’s oil, oil minister Manuel Quevedo said on Tuesday. State-run oil company PDVSA in June began tests to focus exports almost entirely on the crude grade preferred by some Asian markets, Merey heavy crude, after shipments of oil and refined products fell in May following U.S. sanctions, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. “Our plan is to recover. We have internal strategies… One of them is to continue blending (to produce) the product we export the most, Merey crude. We will continue blending our own crudes and will also import crude,” Quevedo said on […]