Archive: Quintin Soloviev, CC0.
North American Blue Energy Partners said Tuesday that two tankers carrying 1 million barrels of its Venezuelan crude have arrived in Corpus Christi, Texas, marking the first cargo under its agreement with the U.S. government.
The company, known as NABEP, announced the arrival in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. It said the first million barrels were delivered at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer to recognize the agreement with its new anchor buyer. The company distinguished this first cargo from the broader right to buy 20% of its production at production cost, without a markup, under the August agreement.
That purchase right is documented in the White House’s August 31 account of the agreement. The administration said NABEP granted the State Department guaranteed access to 20% of output from its current and future fields at production cost, plus a right of first refusal on the remaining 80%.
The distinction is between this first cargo and future purchases. NABEP says the first million barrels were delivered at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer. The White House’s August fact sheet describes the broader 20% purchase right as access at production cost, not a promise of free future oil. It also says the purchase rights and a separate 35% equity stake in NABEP’s parent were granted without charge to taxpayers.
The shipment is a new delivery under that earlier agreement, not a newly announced oil deal. The White House said in August that the arrangement was intended to provide supplies for potential Strategic Petroleum Reserve replenishment, military needs and other sensitive uses. NABEP’s latest statement did not identify the final refinery customers or say that this cargo was going into the reserve.
NABEP Chief Executive Alejandro Betancourt said the cargo reached Texas in just over a week and that more shipments would follow. The company did not provide a schedule or volumes for subsequent deliveries.
The producer also said its total hydrocarbon output reached 223,509 barrels of oil equivalent a day on October 19. That measure includes oil and other hydrocarbons expressed in comparable energy units; it should not be read as a crude-only production figure.
The company described plans to expand oil production to more than 1 million barrels a day in the near term. That remains its target, rather than an achieved output level or a guarantee of additional U.S. deliveries.
JBizNews Desk | Corpus Christi, Texas
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