It was the kind of policy announcement that at first sounds straight-forward, but quickly grows more complicated.

On April 22, the Trump administration announced it would not renew waivers that had been granted to eight countries allowing them to keep importing Iranian crude.

The US reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales in early November, but issued six-month waivers to buyers of Iranian crude.

Which region in the world do you think has had the biggest decreases in crude inventories so far this year?

Here’s a hint: Its biggest supplier is Venezuela. And the answer is...the Caribbean.

The Wall Street Journal reported March 22 that US sanctions have prevented Iran from exporting oil to Syria since January 2, down from an average of 66,000 barrels per day (bpd) during the last three months of 2018.

Without fresh imports from its major supplier, crude inventories in Syria have fallen.

One consequence of Venezuela’s collapse has been the drawdown in crude inventories across the Caribbean.

Storage tanks began to drain more than a year ago and haven’t stopped. The imposition of US sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA in late January has only accelerated the declines.

Certain locations, like Aruba and Curacao, are nearly empty.

Libya’s largest oilfield came back online this week after having been shut for almost three months.

El Sharara has been at the center of an internal power struggle resulting in periodic shutdowns, most recently since December. We wrote about Sharara last month, which you can read here.

Oil prices have rebounded since late December on signs that OPEC production cuts are working.

That’s the conventional wisdom. But what exactly are those signs? And could it be traders are overlooking evidence pointing the other way?

The argument for stronger fundamentals is based partly on US crude inventories.

US stocks have increased, which is typical for this time of year because refineries take units offline for scheduled maintenance.

This blog is part one of a two-part series highlighting the most important things we heard during a busy week in London.

We were in town for one of the biggest events of the year on the energy calendar: International Petroleum Week 2019. The conference draws about 1,500 people over four days of panels, speeches and (of course) parties.

In the first part of our two-blog series, highlighting the key takeaways from a week spent in London, we wrote about a roundtable discussion in which we participated hosted by the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (Kapsarc).

Here’s a round-up of articles mentioning Ursa this week in case you missed them.

Bloomberg cited Ursa in two articles available to Terminal subscribers.

“Mexico Oil Loadings at Highest in Nearly a Year Amid Supply Cuts” (Feb 15) by Amy Stillman and Michelle Kim quoted Ursa inventory measurements.

Two weeks have passed since the US imposed sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, yet the fallout remains the biggest story in the oil market.

Where will US Gulf Coast refiners find heavy sour barrels to make up for Venezuelan supply that have been a staple of their diet?

That question shows the primary concern hasn’t been over the quantity lost as much as the quality lost.