The first shipment of oil from Venezuela to the U.S. under a new agreement has departed

A ship loaded with Venezuelan heavy crude set sail this Sunday from the port of José directly to the United States, marking a significant shift in the energy relationship between Caracas and Washington after years of sanctions.

According to the agency Reuters, the tanker Gloria Maris, chartered by the trading company Trafigura and flying the flag of Liberia, has departed for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) carrying approximately one million barrels of Merey crude oil. This marks the first direct shipment of Venezuelan oil to U.S. territory under the new supply agreement of 50 million barrels established this month between both governments.

The movement comes at a critical moment for the battered Venezuelan oil industry, which has accumulated over 40 million barrels in inventories and faces severe operational limitations after years of sanctions.

The route of the Gloria Maris can be tracked in real time through the platform MarineTraffic, where it shows its journey from the Venezuelan terminal of José to the U.S. coast, with an estimated arrival at the end of January. The image of the ship sailing through the Caribbean has become a symbolic postcard of a geopolitical shift that few envisioned just months ago.

According to Reuters, Trafigura and Vitol were the first trading houses to receive U.S. licenses to load and export Venezuelan crude oil. So far, both groups had sent shipments to Caribbean terminals, from where the oil was marketed to refineries in other countries.

Another ship, the Volans, also left the port of José on the same day with about 450,000 barrels of crude heading to Curacao, while the shipment figures under the agreement have already exceeded 10 million barrels.

This development occurs alongside a growing international interest in Venezuelan oil. Several European and American oil companies have applied for licenses from Donald Trump's administration to resume operations in Venezuela, which Washington presents as part of a strategy to rebuild the energy sector following the capture of Nicolás Maduro and the beginning of a political transition phase.

Although the Venezuelan regime still cannot reverse the production cuts imposed during the total blockade on sanctioned tankers, the departure of this first direct shipment to the U.S. marks a turning point.

For a population battered by the economic crisis and mass migration, oil once again takes center stage in a geopolitical game, the real benefits of which remain uncertain.