PdVSA Plans New Type Of Crude Blend For Market -Official

Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, is planning to offer a new type of crude blend with various quality levels, a company official said Thursday.
'What we want to do is create a new Orinoco blend of Venezuelan crude with different quality levels,' PdVSA board member Eulogio Del Pino said on the sidelines of a regional oil conference.
Del Pino called it the Orinoco blend, but said no final decision has been made on the name or the different API gravity levels to be offered.
Blending upgraded crude with lighter types of oil, Del Pino noted, would allow the Andean country a greater level of production flexibility at times when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries moves to cut production.
'In the case of an OPEC cut, then we would simply mix the (excess) crude into higher quality products,' Del Pino said.