Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 13 2021

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

Maduro offers to pay for

COVID-19 vaccines with oil

VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro said that Maduro was trying to depict his political
on March 28 that his government was ready to opponents and other backers of the sanctions
supply crude oil as payment in kind for corona- imposed by the US government and other
virus (COVID-19) vaccines. entities as obstacles to vaccination. “He wants
In a speech broadcast on the state television to raise the costs for those who are against his
channel, Maduro said that Caracas was already ability to export,” Alvarado told Reuters at the
discussing the question of how to pay for vac- weekend. “He is obviously playing the victim.”
cination materials received via COVAX, the Venezuela’s government has already ordered
World Health Organisation (WHO) mechanism 1.4-2.4mn doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine
that helps poor countries gain access to vaccines. through COVAX. So far, it has not received any
Venezuela is prepared to pay for the vaccines it of these vaccines, partly because it is not in a
receives with state funds from accounts that position to settle its unpaid debts to WHO and
have been frozen because of sanctions and also partly because it informed the Pan American
with shipments of oil, he said. Health Organization (PAHO) on March 15 that
“Venezuela has the oil tankers. It has custom- it was unwilling to use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
ers ready to buy oil from us. It [could] devote Officials in Caracas have not yet authorised
part of its production to obtain the vaccines it the distribution of the AstraZeneca medica-
needs. Oil for vaccines!” he declared. tion, use of which has been suspended in some
The president did not go into detail about European countries because of suggestions
how an oil-for-vaccines swap might work. that it may increase the risk of contracting rare
Antero Alvarado, Venezuela director at blood-clotting disorders. They have, however,
the Gas Energy Latin America energy consul- given a green light to China’s Sinopharm vaccine
tancy, criticised the swap proposal, suggesting and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. ™

GUYANA
ExxonMobil aims to restart compressor

on Liza Destiny FPSO later this week

EXXONMOBIL Guyana, a subsidiary of
US-based ExxonMobil, hopes to restart the flash
gas compressor (FGC) on the Liza Destiny, the
floating production, storage and off-loading
(FPSO) vessel that is being used to develop the
Liza-1 oilfield offshore Guyana before the end
of the week.
The FGC was removed from the FPSO and
sent to Germany for inspection and repairs fol-
lowing the discovery of a leak earlier this year. It
was returned to Guyana on March 13, and teams
of experts are now wrapping up preparations for
bringing it back online, according to Janelle Per-
saud, ExxonMobil Guyana’s public and govern- The Liza Destiny FPSO is installed at the Liza-1 oilfield (Image: ExxonMobil)
ment affairs advisor.
Members of these teams have been “carefully successful start-up,” Persaud was quoted as say-
and methodically reassembling the various ing by OilNOW.gy on March 30. Safety has been
components of the gas compression system and the primary consideration during this prepara-
are now running key instrumentation tests for a tory period, she added.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 13 01•April•2021