Venezuela has shipped its first heavy‑oil tanker directly to the United States under a new 50‑million‑barrel agreement with Washington. The 1‑million‑barrel tanker, named Gloria Maris and flagged in Liberia, left the port of Jose in Venezuela on Sunday bound for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). The move follows the granting of U.S. export licenses to Venezuelan traders Vitol and Trafigura, which had previously shipped oil to Caribbean terminals. A second tanker, Volans (flagged Barbados), also departed Jose the same day with 450,000 barrels for the Bullen Bay terminal in Curaçao. According to shipping data, Venezuelan traders have already moved between 10 and 11 million barrels under the agreement, with plans to export light crude next. Venezuela still holds over 40 million barrels of internal stock that must be released before production can ramp up after years of sanctions‑related blockades.

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