Venezuela has restarted direct shipments of crude oil to China despite U.S. sanctions, Reuters has reported , citing shipping data and documents from PDVSA. Until now, Venezuela’s oil company sold oil to China via ship-to-ship transfers at sea, similar to sanction buddy Iran. Now, according to Reuters’ data, tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude are sailing straight to China. TankerTrackers.com identified the first tanker that left Venezuela en route to China in August this year. Now, there is at least one more unloading crude at a Chinese port and two more, owned by PetroChina, that loaded crude in Venezuela earlier this month, according to PDVSA documents. China is the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude as it is of Iranian crude, despite U.S. sanctions aimed at stifling the two countries’ oil revenues. As a result of the sanctions, Venezuela’s production and exports have suffered gravely, with last month’s average in exports […]