Venezuela ups fuel exports to allies

Unlike five years ago, when an explosion ripped through one of the world's largest refineries, Caracas has continued exporting fuel to political allies and even raised the volume of shipments last month despite warnings within the government-run company that doing so could trigger a domestic supply crunch. Shipments from refineries to the domestic market needed to be redirected to meet those export commitments, the internal documents showed. "Should this additional volume ... be exported, it would impact a cargo scheduled for the local market," read one email sent from an official in the company's domestic marketing department to its international trade unit. Venezuela last month exported 88,000 barrels per day (bpd) of fuels - equivalent to a fifth of its domestic consumption - to Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries, according to internal PDVSA documents seen by Reuters. More…