Page 16 - LatAmOil Week 37

LatAmOil VENEZUEL A LatAmOil

To this end, US Secretary of State Mike Pom- under scrutiny included Libre Abordo, Schlager
peo said in April that Washington was inves- Business Group and Grupo Jomadi Logistics &
tigating reports that a number of firms were Cargo of Mexico, as well as Elemento and Swis-
violating the sanctions imposed on PdVSA. soil Trading, two Europe-based oil trading com-
According to previous reports, the companies panies. ™

Iranian-flagged fuel tankers said

to be bound for Venezuela again

The US government’s distaste for Iran’s efforts in state-run ports without interference. But a
to supply gasoline to Venezuela, which is also second group of four Liberia-flagged tankers
under sanctions, is likely to rise again in the near owned by a Greek shipping group did not arrive
future. As of September 10, two Iranian-flagged at the South American nation in July, as the fuel
tankers transporting fuel were sailing round was seized by Washington under a court order.
Africa’s Cape of Good Hope en route to the The Forest and Fortune have an estimated
Atlantic Ocean, according to Refinitiv Eikon date of arrival later this month, Eikon data also
vessel tracking data. showed.
The medium-size vessels Forest and For- A third Iranian tanker of the same size that
tune, each carrying about 300,000 barrels of also loaded fuel in August at Bandar Abbas, the
fuel picked up at Iran’s Bandar Abbas terminal Faxon, has kept its transponder switched off
last month, were bound for Venezuela, sources since it set sail, the data showed. That makes it
with knowledge of the shipment told Reuters difficult for tracking systems to detect its loca-
last week. tion. That vessel is also bound for Venezuela,
Gasoline shortages in Venezuela have report- according to the Reuters sources, but the route
edly worsened in recent days, owing to insuffi- it took is yet unknown. ™
cient domestic production, leaving long queues .
of drivers waiting in front of stations. The situa-
tion stems from difficulties in attending to main-
tenance, repairs and operational requirements at
the South American country’s refineries. Some
observers say the US sanctions policy is the
main cause of the troubles, and others point to
economic mismanagement by the administra-
tion of President Nicolas Maduro.
Iran sent a first flotilla of five fuel-laden
tankers to Venezuela’s national oil company
(NOC) PdVSA in May and June. They arrived Iranian fuel began arriving in May (Photo: Venezuelan gov’t)

BRAZIL
Brazil deepens investigation

of Petrobras forex transactions

FEDERAL police in Brazil have issued 25 search had issued the search warrants after “evidence
warrants as part of a probe into foreign exchange surfaced that financial directors [of Petrobras]
transactions that state-run Petrobras carried out directed forex contracts to Banco Paulista, with
around a decade ago. artificial manipulation of market rates,” accord-
Banco Paulista, a São Paulo-based financial ing to a report by the Mercosur news agency.
firm, is also being investigated as part of the Banco Paulista has acknowledged that the said
probe, according to the prosecutors. As of press probe relates to forex operations that took place
time, no arrest warrants had been issued. between 2008 and 2011 and that have been
Prosecutors said in a statement that they investigated in the past, the agency said.

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 17•September•2020