Category: Latin America

Venezuela’s PDVSA sold three cargoes of intermediate fuel oil with 380 CST and one 3% sulfur fuel oil cargo to PetroChina for June, a source familiar with PDVSA’s operations said Friday. The first intermediate fuel oil cargo is loading June 13-15 on the tanker Newton, destined for China. The second cargo is loading June 19-21 on the tanker Maxim, also with China as its destination, and the third is loading June 28-30 on an unknown tanker for delivery to Singapore. The 3%S fuel oil cargo is scheduled to load June 26-28 on an unknown tanker and is also being delivered to Singapore, the source said. Article continues below… Oilgram Price Report Oilgram Price Report is a daily report that covers market changes, market fundamentals and factors driving prices. Oilgram Price Report also brings a vast array of Platts international prices for crude and products, netback tables, and market critical […]

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American Airlines said Tuesday that it will cut nearly 80 percent of its flights to Venezuela in a dispute over revenue being held by the South American country. American said that beginning July 2 it will operate 10 flights per week instead of the current 48. And it will only fly to Venezuela from Miami, scrapping flights from New York, Dallas and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The airline says Venezuela is holding on to at least $750 million in revenue that American wants to bring back to the U.S. Other airlines are locked in similar disputes. The International Air Transport Association, a trade group for major world airlines, said this month that Venezuela is holding $4 billion in airline money because of problems with the country’s currency-control system. Air Canada and Italy’s Alitalia have suspended all flights to Caracas and Panama’s Copa has reduced […]

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Italian energy company Eni said it signed an agreement to help develop the Perla gas field in Venezeula, one of the largest offshore finds in recent history. Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi met in Caracas with Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramiriz and Antonio Brufau , the head of Spanish energy company Repsol, to discuss exploiting the Perla field. Billed as one of the largest gas discoveries in the world, Eni said the Perla field off the coast of Venezuela holds an estimated 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It’s situated about 30 miles offshore in the Cardon IV reserve area, which is operated in part through a joint venture between Eni and Repsol. "These agreements will grant Eni access to Perla’s liquids reserves," the Italian company said in a statement Wednesday. The trilateral agreement envisions a new mixed enterprise controlled by Venezuelan state-owned energy company Petroleos […]

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At a time when Venezuela ’s record $25 billion in arrears to importers has its citizens waiting hours in line to buy drinking water and crossing borders in search of medicine, President Nicolas Maduro is using the nation’s dwindling supply of dollars to enrich bondholders. Venezuela, which imports just about everything, and its state oil producer have paid $2.8 billion in interest to overseas creditors this year, according to Barclays Plc. Including debt principal, bondholder outlays will balloon to almost $10 billion by year-end, the London-based firm estimates. By putting off the local companies responsible for supplying everything from diapers to cancer medications, Maduro can preserve access to debt markets and protect oil shipments that would be vulnerable to bondholder seizure, said Alejandro Arreaza, an analyst at Barclays. Even if that means fanning the world’s fastest inflation and inflaming protests over shortages that have left at least 42 people […]

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U.S. House lawmakers voted to require sanctions against Venezuelan officials involved in a crackdown against protesters and opposition leaders in that country. The measure passed by voice vote yesterday in Washington . The legislation is intended to “hold these human rights violators accountable,” said bill sponsor Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican. “The first step in doing so is hitting them in their pocketbooks and denying them entry into the United States .” Venezuela has cracked down on protests that started in February over the world’s fastest inflation, crime and shortages of staples such as food and toilet paper. At least 42 people have been killed in the demonstrations. Amnesty International said April 1 it had received dozens of accounts of torture allegedly carried out by security forces since the protests began. The U.S. State Department has so far resisted calls from Congress for sanctions against Venezuelan President Nicolas […]

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