Chevron-chartered oil tanker Ionic Anax is seen near the Bajo Grande port in Venezuela's lake Maracaibo after loading for export, in San Francisco, Zulia State, Venezuela December 13, 2025. REUTERS/Isaac Urrutia
(Bloomberg) — Venezuela is sending its first crude oil cargo to Israel in years as the Latin American country’s exports open up following the capture of its president Nicolas Maduro.
The cargo is being transported to Bazan Group, the Mediterranean country’s top crude processor, people with knowledge of the deal said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
At the start of the year, US forces captured Maduro and the Trump administration said it would take over Venezuelan oil sales.
Israel doesn’t advertise where it gets its crude oil from, and tankers have sometimes disappeared from digital tracking systems once they near the country’s ports.
When the cargo arrives, it would mark the first shipment of its kind since mid-2020, when Israel took about 470,000 barrels, according to Kpler data. Bazan, also known as Oil Refineries Ltd, declined to comment. Israel’s energy ministry declined to comment on where the country gets its crude from.
The deal is the latest sign of how the removal of Venezuelan president Maduro from office is routing flows of the country’s oil. Until then, much of the country’s output was sold in China. In the last month cargoes have been sold to buyers in India, Spain, the US and now Israel.
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.
This article contains reporting from Bloomberg, published under license.
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