Three sources familiar with the decision confirmed on Thursday that Venezuela's PDVSA, Venezuela's national oil company, has cancelled several authorizations granted to Chevron by PDVSA to load and export Venezuelan crude oil in this month.

One source said that two of the cancellations involved tankers which had already been loaded with oil, and the oil had to be returned to the ports. A third tanker had not yet loaded.

PDVSA and Chevron didn't immediately respond to requests for comments. The cargoes were not immediately rescheduled, as Washington gave Chevron until the end of May to stop exports. (Reporting and editing by Sandra Maler; Arathy S. Somasekhar)

(source: Reuters)