PDVSA said to halt gasoline to US, company denies

NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters) Oil traders and ship brokers said Venezuela's PDVSA state-owned oil company had stopped exports of unleaded gasoline to the United States, but the company denied the reports.

Traders and brokers said the stoppage also included Cuba and was due to persistent refinery problems.

But a PDVSA spokeswoman said the company ''totally denied'' the reports, affirming gasoline shipments were ''totally normal.'' While PDVSA has acknowledged in recent weeks refinery stoppages, including one due to an unforeseen power outage, the spokeswoman said on Friday the stoppages had been planned and the company took measures to ensure exports were not affected.

The company official was not authorized to speak for the record, but said she was quoting PDVSA Director Asdrubal Chavez.

Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, shipped about 51,000 barrels per day of gasoline and gasoline blending components in July to the United States, which requires about 9 million bpd of gasoline.

Two Venezuelan term gasoline buyers, who typically sell gasoline to the United States, were not expected to load any gasoline in Venezuela in October.

''We are expecting close to zero exports from Venezuela this month,'' a term buyer said. ''It is not surprising that there would be no gasoline exports in October because the export flow has been slowing down in the past few months.'' In the past two weeks, PDVSA shut its 54,000-barrels-per-day cat cracker at El Palito refinery after an electrical outage, and its Puerto La Cruz refinery was also experiencing operational problems.

A source close to PDVSA earlier on Friday confirmed the buyers' and traders' reports that the export flow to Cuba had stopped.

''We have been informed by a major Venezuelan gasoline buyer that there won't be any gasoline tanker fixture in October because of an export stoppage,'' a ship broker said.

A second Venezuelan term gasoline buyer in the United States confirmed that there would be no gasoline exports to the United States in October.

''We are not getting any gasoline cargoes from Venezuela this month, and we have not been getting any in the past few months as well,'' the buyer said.

Despite the export stoppage to the United States and Cuba, Venezuela will continue to ship small gasoline cargoes from Curacao to countries in the Caribbean including Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, the ship broker said.

Also, PDVSA was expected to ship one 38,000-tonne gasoline cargo to Iran in an oil-for-equipment barter deal on Oct 20-25.

''It is not surprising to hear about the export problems after PDVSA bought gasoline in the open market late last week,'' an oil trader said, adding that PDVSA rarely buys spot gasoline.

PDVSA bought 300,000 barrels of gasoline from BP Plc for mid-October lifting.

The Venezuelan gasoline export stoppage was not expected to have a significant impact on the U.S. gasoline cash market due to the inconsistent, weak imports from that origin, some traders said.

''Supplies from Venezuela have been unreliable and falling in the past year,'' a trader in the U.S. Northeast said.

''The market has discounted the imports from Venezuela. If we get them, we get them. ... If not, it is not a big deal.'' The current average import volume from Venezuela is only a fraction of the high of 200,000 bpd seen two and three years ago.

REUTERS DKS RAI0429