By Marianna Parraga and Alexandra Ulmer

HOUSTON/CARACAS, March 24 (Reuters) – Serious delays to load and unload vessels at Venezuela’s essential crude port began to create a backlog of tankers final week that’s now extending to the island of Curacao, in accordance with merchants, a union consultant and Thomson Reuters knowledge.

Some 70 tankers had been anchored round state-run PDVSA’s ports in Venezuela and the Caribbean, most of them ready to load oil for exports and likewise to discharge imported crude and merchandise, in accordance with Thomson Reuters vessel monitoring knowledge.

The ensuing backlog is much like a state of affairs late final 12 months, when PDVSA did not adjust to prepayment contracts agreed with its essential oil suppliers.

But the buildup of vessels shouldn’t be associated to cost points this time and it has shaped quicker, the information say, jeopardizing crude exports of the OPEC-member nation.

A union chief and a legislator blamed technical issues with the Jose port’s loading arms which are inflicting incremental delays for filling and discharging cargoes.

PDVSA didn’t reply a request for remark. Venezuela exports 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude with the United States and China as essential locations.

As of March 23, 36 Venezuelan crude cargoes, together with Orinoco belt’s diluted oil and blends loaded at Jose, had arrived to the United States, displaying a slight decline versus typical exports volumes, in accordance with Thomson Reuters Trade Flows knowledge.

But merchants and union sources stated the state of affairs might worsen if out of service gear shouldn’t be repaired quickly.

“Of 11 marine loading arms, only four are currently working. This situation has been worsening in the last three weeks. Loading time has extended to more than four days from an average of 40 hours,” Eudis Girot, an oil union chief, informed Reuters.

A marine loading arm is a tool consisting on articulated metal pipes that join a tankship to a cargo terminal.

A supply from a contractor that companies Jose stated upkeep issues aren’t new as outdated gear is usually not changed on time.

As PDVSA is utilizing a number of oversea terminals to retailer and mix oil, the damaged arms at Jose are making a knock-out impact and delaying shipments to the Caribbean, significantly affecting crude imports and exports in Curacao.

Two gasoline cargoes coming from the United States to Jose on the tankers Strofades and Mare Atlantic have been ready for greater than every week, in accordance with the Thomson Reuters knowledge. And the tanker Orpheas that arrived in Curacao from the U.S. Gulf Coast on March 22 with 500,000 barrels of WTI crude has not discharged but, the information confirmed. (With extra reporting by Mircelys Guanipa in Paraguana and Liz Hampton in Houston)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.