'No roads to carry aid': Venezuela's supply chain crisis eclipses oil fears after quake

By Seo Ji-yeon, The Herald Business

"We can't get my son out — there's no heavy equipment."

In La Guaira on Venezuela's northern coast, residents are clawing through concrete rubble with their bare hands, waiting for rescue teams that cannot reach them. The problem is not a shortage of rescuers. Roads, the airport and the port were all damaged simultaneously, creating a bottleneck that has paralyzed the disaster response itself.

The magnitude-7.5 earthquake sequence has struck Venezuela's logistics network before its oil infrastructure, emerging as a new source of instability for South American supply chains.

La Guaira, the area hardest hit by the quake, is Venezuela's largest logistics hub — the gateway to the capital, Caracas, and home to the country's main international airport and a key seaport, Reuters and other outlets reported Thursday.

Simón Bolívar International Airport has suspended operations due to facility damage. The port and connecting roads have been damaged at multiple points. With hundreds of buildings collapsed, heavy machinery and rescue personnel are struggling to reach affected areas.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said simultaneous damage to the airport, roads and communications networks has severely constrained international rescue efforts. Delays in moving international rescue teams, medical personnel and emergency relief supplies have put the critical window for saving survivors at serious risk.

Markets are paying closer attention to the earthquake's impact on supply chains than to international oil prices.

Venezuela produces about 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, making it a major South American oil producer. Concerns about supply disruptions surfaced immediately after the quake, but major energy facilities appear to have largely escaped serious damage so far.

US oil company Chevron confirmed all its employees were safe and said production was continuing normally. The Morón petrochemical complex completed facility inspections and began restart procedures, and no serious damage has been confirmed at other major crude production facilities.

Experts say the critical variable in this disaster is not oil production but the transport network.

La Guaira is Venezuela's main logistics gateway not only for crude oil but for the bulk of the country's imports — food, medicine, industrial machinery and everyday necessities. With the airport, port and the roads linking them to the capital all damaged at once, the risk of bottlenecks for both general cargo and relief supplies has grown sharply. In affected areas, rescue equipment has not arrived in time, hampering recovery operations. Hospitals overwhelmed with casualties are reporting shortages of medical equipment and medicine, yet there is no clear way to deliver the supplies that foreign donors have rushed to offer. Power and communications have been cut in some areas, slowing rescue work further.

The logistics industry sees the pace of port and airport recovery — not oil production — as the key variable for supply chain stability going forward. Without the port returning to normal operations, not only crude export schedules but also imports of equipment and industrial parts needed for refinery maintenance could face delays.

International maritime shipping operators are also watching the situation closely. Major natural disasters have frequently triggered temporary spikes in maritime insurance premiums and freight rates as port disruptions and voyage delays increase operational risk.