A first shipment under the U.S. agreement with North American Blue Energy Partners reached Texas on Tuesday, as competing descriptions of its price left the cargo's payment terms in question.
NABEP said the oil reached Corpus Christi on Tuesday, Oct. 27, with one million barrels of Venezuelan crude aboard two tankers. The company said U.S. taxpayers would face no cost; a White House official told Reuters Washington received the shipment without paying.
The Washington Post, citing two people familiar with the shipment, reported that the cargo was priced at $30 per barrel. ProPublica separately reported that one supporting document set a $30-per-barrel rate for the U.S. purchase right covering 20% of NABEP's crude. Neither account establishes what the government paid for the full cargo.
The White House's Aug. 31 fact sheet describes the 20% purchase right as being priced at production cost. It also says the government holds a 35% equity stake in NABEP's parent company and has first refusal on the remaining 80% of production. The fact sheet says the agreement covers 17 Venezuelan fields and presents expanded U.S. oil access, investment, jobs and royalties in Venezuela as intended benefits.
PR Newswire notes that NABEP amended the opening of its release. Reuters reported that the earlier text treated the shipment as part of the U.S. purchase option, while the revised version described it as free. A White House official told Reuters the crude would be sold to refineries operated by Exxon Mobil and Citgo Petroleum.
NABEP reported hydrocarbon output of 223,509 barrels of oil equivalent per day on Oct. 19. The company says it aims to produce more than one million barrels of oil per day in the near term.
