OREANDA-NEWS. Supplies of Russian oil and petroleum products to the United States in the first half of May reached 5 barrels. This writes the Russian media with reference to the message of the managing partner of the investment bank Caracas Capital Market Russ Dalena. This is comparable to the total volume of oil supplies from Russia since the beginning of the year. As previously reported by Bloomberg, in the first five months of 2019, the United States imported 5 million barrels. Urals oil. For the whole of 2018, 7.51 million barrels of oil were supplied to the American market, and in 2017, 1.58 million barrels.

Growth in the supply of raw materials from Russia to the United States is taking place against the background of a twofold decrease in oil production in Venezuela. In May 2018, Venezuelan oil production amounted to 1.33 million barrels, in March 2019 - 740,000 barrels. in a day.

The reduction in the production and export of Venezuelan oil is due to the introduction in January of this year of US sanctions against the state oil and gas company PDVSA and its American subsidiary Citgo Petroleum. The condition for the lifting of sanctions in Washington called the departure of the current President Nicolas Maduro and the announcement of new elections. After the introduction of sanctions, PDVSA exports fell by 40%. Prior to this, the United States was the largest buyer of Venezuelan raw materials.

Oil supplies from Russia to the United States increased sharply in March 2019. Then, the Caracas Capital Market noted that they had overcome a maximum since 2011. “Ironically, the Russians benefit from the collapse of Venezuela: one hostile podsanktsionny country replaces another hostile podsanktsionny country in the United States States, ”Dellen emphasized.