Exports of Venezuelan diluted crude oil (DCO) to the United States fell 13 percent to 163,000 barrels per day in November while the South American country imported crude, naphtha, diesel and gasoline, according to Reuters trade flows data and internal reports from state-run PDVSA. Oil company PDVSA resumed regular exports of DCO to the United States in October, after limiting spot sales of these crudes in previous months to avoid losses from falling prices and costly imports of the naphtha it had been using as a diluent to formulate them. In late October, the company started replacing naphtha with light crude imported from Algeria’s Sonatrach. It has since then received some 4 million barrels of Saharan Blend to use it as a new diluent for its extra heavy crude output and it is also buying Russian Urals to process it at its Caribbean refineries. Venezuela sent 10 cargoes of DCO to U.S. ports in November versus 11 cargoes in October, most of them received by its refining unit, Citgo Petroleum. PDVSA and its joint ventures exported to the United States a total of 681,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude last month in 41 cargoes, a 3 percent increase versus October. Valero Energy Corp received 14 cargoes; Citgo bought 12 cargoes; Motiva Enterprises imported four and Chevron received two. Other firms and PDVSA’s affiliates imported nine cargoes, according to Reuters data. Also in November, PDVSA received a 500,000 barrel cargo of heavy naphtha loaded in Houston from trading company Glencore, a 290,000 barrel cargo of diesel from Russia’s Rosneft and a 150,000 barrel cargo of gasoline from DB Energy Trading, according to PDVSA’s internal imports and exports reports. The company in November requested on the open market up to 2.4 million barrels of fuels to be imported while trying to restart several refineries affected by power failures, but some tankers arriving from Europe and the United States are still waiting to unload in crowded Venezuelan ports. (Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Richard Chang)