Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 47 2022

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

As of press time, the reports could not be con- Under its current licence, Chevron may
firmed. Chevron has not commented on the maintain a token presence in Venezuela but
matter, and the US State Department and Treas- cannot actively participate in any oil and gas
ury Department have also remained mum. projects in the country. If it exceeds the man-
Reuters’ sources indicated, though, that US date of this document, it is liable to penalties
government officials were eager for progress under the trade restrictions established in 2019
on Venezuela, which the administration of US by then-president Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden sees as a potential source of The sanctions regime aims to limit invest-
additional crude oil for the global market. They ment in the oil sector, which generates most of
also explained that the Biden team was pushing Venezuela’s hard-currency earnings. It was put
for a quick deal, since Chevron’s current licence in place in response after Venezuelan President
to operate in Venezuela is due to expire on Nicolas Maduro secured re-election amidst
December 1. widespread allegations of fraud and repression
If the Venezuelan government and oppo- of the political opposition. The US government
sition are able to come to terms, they said, the has made lifting of the sanctions conditional
US Treasury Department will be able to grant upon progress toward an agreement between
the company a new licence early next week. It Caracas and the opposition on new elections.
could then amend the licence later if the par- Maduro’s administration has held multiple
ties are able to move in the direction of holding rounds of talks with the opposition in Mexico
new elections, one source added, comment- City, and the Biden team has indicated that it
ing that a “range of options” remained under wants to see the next set of discussions take place
consideration. during the coming weekend. ™

AP report: Companies with US ties are

assisting in Venezuelan fuel shipments

TWO companies with ties to the US appear inventories of Venezuela’s national oil company
to be assisting Venezuela in transporting large PdVSA in 2019, after its lease expired.
amounts of petroleum products to the world Marshall Billingslea, a former senior US
market via an Iranian-built tanker, even though Treasury Department official who was involved
the US government restricts trade with both in the drafting of Washington’s current Vene-
Iran and Venezuela, according to a report from zuelan sanctions policy, believes that Curaçao’s
the Associated Press. leadership may be willing to assist in the eva-
One of the firms in question, Caribbean sion of sanctions due to lax enforcement from
Petroleum Refinery, has an office in Houston, the administration of US President Joe Biden.
AP said. The other is owned by two persons with “They’re flouting the sanctions because they
dual US-Venezuelan citizenship, it stated. know under this administration there are no
Although the origin of the fuel has not consequences,” the former Treasury Depart-
been disclosed, the tanker that is being used to ment official claimed. Under the current sanc-
transport it, known as the Colon, has a history tions, US entities are barred from conducting
of travelling exclusively to Venezuelan ports. business with PdVSA. This sanction becomes
On September 28, for example, the Colon dis- more challenging to enforce, however, when the
charged 600,000 barrels of residual fuel oil at the fuels in question have exchanged hands on mul-
Bullenbaai terminal, located on the central west tiple occasions, making them harder to track. ™
coast of Curaçao.
The terminal is operated by Refineria di Kor-
sou (RdK), Curacao’s state-owned refining com-
pany, in partnership with Caribbean Petroleum
Refinery. The terminal is capable of storing up to
7mn barrels of petroleum products.
Curaçao’s apparent involvement in this
scheme comes as a shock, particularly since the
island country’s foreign relations are governed
by the Netherlands, a staunch US ally. To date,
both the Netherlands and Curaçao have exhib-
ited a strong record of enforcing the United
States sanctions against Venezuela, as was
proved when Curaçao confiscated the unsold Bullenbaai Terminal (Photo: Standard International Group)

Week 47 23•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11