Singapore (Platts)--2Jul2014/652 am EDT/1052 GMT

India imported 403,000 b/d of Venezuelan crude in 2013, up 10.1% from 2012, while China imported 293,000 b/d, up 8.9% year on year, according to state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA.

India did not import any refined products from Venezuela in 2013, according to PDVSA's recently published annual operational report, compared with 1,000 b/d in 2012.

India overtook China as the largest Asian buyer of Venezuelan crude in 2012, and the trend accelerated last year with the September 2012 signing of a 15-year, 300,000-400,000 b/d oil export deal between PDVSA and independent Indian energy group Reliance Industries Ltd.

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Another factor was the completion in mid-2013 of Essar Oil's upgrade to its 405,000 b/d Vadinar refinery, allowing it to process more heavy crude.

While China's Venezuelan crude imports in 2013 rose 8.9%, its imports of refined products -- mainly fuel oil -- fell 8.3% year on year to 77,000 b/d, taking China's overall oil imports from Venezuela to 369,000 b/d, up 4.5% from 2012, according to the PDVSA data.

China and Venezuela have signed a raft of bilateral loan-for-oil deals since 2011. According to PDVSA's consolidated financial statement for 2013, the loan-for-oil deals granted China the right to lift up to 550,000 b/d of Venezuelan crude and products in 2013, up from 530,000 b/d in 2012.

However, China actually lifted 485,000 b/d of Venezuelan oil and products last year, up from 451,000 b/d in 2012, the report said. SINGAPORE'S ENTREPOT ROLE

Most of the discrepancy in the quantity of Venezuelan crude and products reportedly lifted by China (485,000 b/d) and the quantity officially imported by China (369,000 b/d) was accounted for by the role of Singapore as a regional storage and bunkering hub, trading sources said Wednesday.

PDVSA's exports of refined products to Singapore rose 21% year on year to 196,000 b/d in 2013, according to the report. A large percentage of those barrels, also predominantly fuel oil, eventually ended up in China, according to the Singapore market sources.

Elsewhere in Asia, Venezuela's exports of crude oil to Japan quadrupled from a low base to 12,000 b/d, according the PDVSA document, while PDVSA's crude exports to Malaysia fell to 18,000 b/d last year, from 20,000 b/d in 2012.

In the Asia data, PDVSA included Turkey, which imported 15,000 b/d products from Venezuela last year, down from 19,000 in 2012.

Overall, PDVSA said it exported 726,000 b/d of crude and 289,000 b/d of products to Asia in 2013, or a total of 1.015 million b/d, up 9.8% from 2012.

PDVSA's global crude exports dropped 6.1% to 1.935 million b/d in 2013, while products exports fell 3.5% to 490,000 b/d, according to PDVSA President Rafael Ramirez, who presented the report in Caracas Friday.

Ramirez, who doubles as Venezuela's oil minister, told politicians and business leaders that 2013 had been Venezuela's "most difficult year."

The 2013 annual report also said PDVSA's six domestic refineries processed 952,000 b/d in 2013. About 31% of the refineries' output was gasoline and naphtha, 30% was jet and other distillates, 27% residuals, 11% other products and lubricants and 1% asphalt.

PDVSA produced 2.9 million b/d of crude last year, the report said. However, many independent analysts question the reliability of the state-owned group's figures.

--James Bourne, james.bourne@platts.com
--Edited by Meghan Gordon, meghan.gordon@platts.com

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