Exporters sell Venezuelan oil for China as Brazilian crude — Reuters

According to the TankerTrackers vessel monitoring service, over the past year, suppliers have relabelled more than $1 billion worth of Venezuelan oil cargoes for China as crude from Brazil. In turn, this approach has helped to reduce logistics costs and divert tankers directly to the Asian country, avoiding US sanctions.

According to China Customs reports, the country imported about 67,000 bpd worth $1.2 billion from Brazil between July 2024 and March 2025. According to tanker tracker Vortexa Analytics and internal PDVSA documents, many of the cargoes entering the country labelled as Brazilian bitumen actually contain Venezuela's Merey grade. This is a type of heavy crude oil that independent Chinese refiners typically purchase from Venezuela's oil and gas company through intermediaries.

Last year, Venezuela sent about 351,000 barrels of oil and heavy fuel per day to China. In the beginning of 2025, volumes increased to 463,000 bpd, according to PDVSA documents and transportation data from Reuters.