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Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA changed several shipments of crude oil that it had assigned to Rosneft Trading SA, sanctioned by the United States last week, to another unit of the Russian oil giant, according to internal company documents, which led the US special envoy to warn that more companies could be penalized.
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According to PDVSA business documents, to which it had access ReutersFour shipments that plan to transport about 6.7 million barrels of Venezuelan oil in February had previously been assigned to Rosneft Trading. But in recent days his buyer was changed TNK Trading, a company acquired by Rosneft.
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Two of the load changes occurred in the first week of February. The other two came after the United States announced sanctions against Rosneft Trading last week, according to data.
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Rosneft absorbed TNK Trading International after completing the purchase of TNK BP in 2013. TNK Trading and Rosneft Trading share an address in Geneva, according to the Moneyhouse online company registry.
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PDVSA and Rosneft did not answer questions about the changes. Reuters could not determine whether the measure was executed in response to the sanctions.
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However, the US special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, told the same media on Monday that he was aware of the change in shipments.
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“I would only say that if they play games like that with OFAC, all that will happen is that additional companies will be sanctioned.“, said.
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Washington imposed sanctions last week on Rosneft Trading, PDVSA’s main trading partner, and its boss, Didier Casimiro, as part of a “maximum pressure” strategy to promote the departure of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
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US officials accused Rosneft Trading of boosting PDVSA, which was sanctioned last year, and of getting involved in “tricks” to hide the country of origin of Venezuelan oil flowing into the markets.
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Rosneft has responded that he considers these sanctions illegal since Washington has not presented evidence of bad practices, while other oil companies are still authorized to market Venezuelan crude.
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Sources in PDVSA and the shipping industry said that the change of buyer by the state company aims to avoid problems transferring, mixing or reselling Venezuelan oil.
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Changes in the load schedule mean that Eight of the 23 shipments of crude oil planned to be exported this month from Venezuela’s main oil terminal, the port of Jose, have so far been assigned to TNK Trading International SA.
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Two others remained assigned to Rosneft Trading until February 21, according to PDVSA internal data seen by Reuters. The remaining 13 were assigned to companies from countries other than Russia.
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TNK Trading is taking a growing share of exports assigned to Rosneft since the end of 2019. In January, it received 7 of 10 shipments awarded to Rosneft, PDVSA documents showed..
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Last year, Washington imposed the toughest sanctions so far on PDVSA, depriving it of its main market, the United States. The company lost a third of oil exports last year, and production declined to its lowest level in almost 75 years.
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With information from Reuters
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