By Lucia Kassai (Bloomberg) — Commodities trader Vitol Group loaded its first oil cargo from Venezuela’s shore-based storage tanks, a move set to help clear bottlenecks and pave the way for the South American crude giant to ramp up production. 

The vessel ICE Energy loaded half a million barrels of Venezuelan crude over the weekend, according to shipping documents and vessel movements compiled by Bloomberg. The oil loaded for Vitol is expected to be shipped to Bullen Bay, Curacao, for discharge into storage facilities, the documents show. 

Vitol and Trafigura Group were tasked by the Trump administration with marketing up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil after the US captured leader Nicolás Maduro and asserted control over the country’s crude earlier this month. 

Crude oil exports, a key source of revenue for the country, have plunged in the weeks since US forces seized Maduro as the shadowy companies that had been moving cargoes to Asian markets vanished, spooked by the heavy American naval presence in the region.

Oil exports so far this month have slumped by more than half to 177,000 barrels a day compared with the same period in December. Crude that otherwise would have been shipped abroad is now filling up domestic storage tanks, forcing some the closure of some oil wells. 

Vitol declined to comment. The trader, along with Trafigura and Chevron Corp. are the only companies with US permission to export Venezuelan oil. 

Vitol’s cargo is the first to come directly from onshore storage tanks, which receive oil via pipeline. The company and Trafigura previously handled 4.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude that was already aboard ships. That oil is currently being discharged at storage facilities in the Caribbean. 

Curacao’s tank farms, relics of the shuttered Isla refinery, can hold millions of barrels. Traders are stashing crude there amid a seasonal demand lull during the northern winter, and may dispatch the cargoes to markets as consumption picks beginning in the spring.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.