Venezuela Data: EIA And Reuters Numbers Differ -- July 10, 2018

Pardon the interruption -- before we get to the Venezuela story, this first. It looks like the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project is a sweet deal. Both First Nations and Alberta appear likely to compete for / share an equity stage in the pipeline.

• First Nations story here.
• The Alberta story here.
• It won't be long, and Tom Steyer will want a piece of the action.

Now, back to Venezuela.

Reuters says Venezuela crude oil imports to the US "bounced back in June, 2018." That surprised me.

From Reuters:

[Venezuela] exported 563,962 barrels per day of crude to the United States last month (June, 2018), 5 percent above May figures and the largest volume since August. Exports of DCO slightly surpassed 250,000 bpd, the highest level since May 2017, according to Thomson Reuters trade flows data.

Back-of-the-envelope:

• June, 2018: 563,962 x 30 days = 16.919 million bbls
• May, 2018: 16.113 million bbls

Let's look at EIA data. Most recent EIA data available only through April, 2018, monthly US imports from Venezuela:

So, Reuters says:

• June imports of 16.919 million bbls is the largest volume since August, 2017. It appears, according to the EIA, US imports from Venezuela exceeded that amount "significantly" in both March and April

We'll have to wait to see the official EIA data which should be available soon.

Now, imagine if the numbers vary that much between various sources for every nation that imports and/or exports oil ....

Disclaimer: I often make simple arithmetic errors and often misread articles.