Venezuela tops up heavy naphtha stocks ahead of license expirations, documents say

May 13 (Reuters) - Venezuela's PDVSA has ramped up imports of heavy naphtha, a key fuel to dilute its extra heavy oil output and make it exportable, ahead of the expiration of U.S. licenses this month, according to shipping documents and sources.

The U.S. Treasury Department has since 2022 allowed Venezuela to import diluents for its heavy crude as part of oil swaps with joint venture partners and customers, but in March President Donald Trump's administration revoked all licenses authorizing the deals, and gave companies until May 27 to wind down transactions.

PDVSA has since only delivered Venezuelan crude to customers that can prepay for the cargoes or fully exchange their value for diluents including light crude and heavy naphtha. Cargoes scheduled for U.S. Chevron CVX.N were canceled amid payment uncertainty last month.

Venezuela needs diluents to produce exportable crude grades. The naphtha imports have replenished the state oil company's stocks, securing diluents for coming months and compensating for a lower output of domestic medium and light crudes that also are used as diluents, company documents showed.

"There's so much heavy naphtha at this point that they have had to interrupt cargo discharges at the Jose port to look for available tanks, and use vessels for floating storage," a shipper involved in import deals said.

The extra supply is set to double Venezuela's oil imports this month to some 165,000 barrels per day (bpd) including foreign crude, naphtha and other fuel, according to the documents.

PDVSA last month agreed to a key deal with its partner Maurel & Prom MAUP.PA and trader Vitol, expanding the volume of a long-standing crude-for-naphtha swap. Under the agreement, the Venezuelan crude has gone to the United States, while U.S. naphtha has been delivered to PDVSA.

PDVSA and Maurel & Prom did not reply to requests for comment. Vitol declined to comment.

PDVSA has recently imported naphtha and light oil from other sources as well, according to the documents.

As of this week, PDVSA's inventories of crude and naphtha at its Jose port surpassed 9 million barrels, compared with 6.6 million barrels in February, the documents showed.