Venezuela’s state producer Petróleos de Venezuela SA has kept output at roughly 1.1 million barrels a day through June and July, defying expectations that volumes would slump after the United States forced Chevron Corp. to wind down operations at the end of May. The resilience reflects a last-minute surge in imports of naphtha and other diluents that peaked at 97,000 barrels a day in May, the highest in more than four years, according to internal data seen by Bloomberg. PDVSA has been drawing down those inventories, including a 704,000-barrel cargo of naphtha discharged this month at the José terminal, to keep heavy crude from the Orinoco Belt flowing. Energy analyst Francisco Monaldi of Rice University estimates the stockpiles could be exhausted within two to three months, forcing the company to seek alternative supplies such as Iranian condensate or Russian heavy naphtha—both subject to U.S. sanctions and possible additional trade risks. Foreign partners are scrambling to adapt. Spain’s Repsol SA is in talks with U.S. officials to secure a framework that would allow it to monetize its Venezuelan production without violating sanctions, while Colombia and Venezuela have opened negotiations on the future sale of the fertilizer maker Monómeros under a confidentiality pact. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chevron’s revised agreement in Venezuela exempts President Nicolás Maduro’s government from receiving royalties or taxes, underscoring the changing terms for international companies that remain in the sanctioned OPEC member.