Venezuela resumes direct China oil deliveries despite US sanctions

Venezuela has reportedly resumed direct oil shipments to China after brutal US sanctions against the Central American nation forced the trade to go underground for more than a year.

Two China-flagged very large crude carriers (VLCC) with the capacity to transport some nearly 2 million barrels of crude each loaded Venezuelan heavy crude at the Jose terminal in recent days, Reuters reported Friday citing internal documents from Venezuela’s state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data.

One of the vessels, the Xingye, departed from Venezuela on Thursday signaling Singapore as its destination, Eikon data showed. The other carrier -- the Thousand Sunny -- has not yet set sail, according to the report, which noted that both tankers were owned by a PDVSA-PetroChina joint venture until earlier this year when PetroChina assumed full ownership.

China has joined Venezuela’s two other close allies - Russia and Cuba - in publicly censuring US sanctions on OPEC-member Venezuela.

The imposition of the American sanctions against oil-rich Venezuela was part of a persisting plot by the hawkish Trump administration to oust President Nicolas Maduro, though they failed to completely halt Caracas’s oil exports or to overthrow the president.

According to the report, Maduro’s administration held a meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials and businessmen this month to tout a new law to promote investment in the face of what Caracas refers to as Washington’s “blockade” of the country. The law allows Venezuela to sign new oil deals confidentially.

Maduro stated during the meeting that he would send a letter to China’s President Xi Jinping encouraging more robust commercial relations between the two countries.

“We have to move forward with investments, with wealth creation, with new partnerships. The anti-blockade law allows all that. Let’s do it in this new phase,” he added.

The resumption of direct imports by China comes after Washington earlier this year took action against units of Russia’s Rosneft and later threatened to act against shipping firms that continued to do business with PDVSA following trade sanctions first imposed in early 2019.

Since its units were struck by US sanctions, Rosneft has halted business with PDVSA, the company has declared. However, the sanctions on its subsidiaries have not been lifted.

SS