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Venezuela cannot pay for equipment needed to dredge a coastal lake that is a key to oil exports, slowing Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) plan to increase shipments from the country, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The government sent a letter to Dutch shipbuilding company Royal IHC saying it would be unable to pay for dredging equipment to dig out Lake Maracaibo because of economic sanctions, according to the report.
Chevron (CVX) has asked Venezuela to clean up the lake, which has become choked with silt, so its ships do not run aground as it pushes to increase cargoes to 500K barrels per shipment, compared with ~300K per shipment in April.
Chevron (CVX) has gradually increased oil production in Venezuela after the U.S. eased restrictions on operating there late last year.
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