Italy’s Eni transfers first oil from Venezuela after US sanction relief

An oil tanker chartered by Italian oil
company Eni SpA to carry 650,000 barrels of diluted
crude oil supplied by Venezuelan state-run PDVSA arrived on
Friday in Venezuelan waters, according to a document from the
state-run firm.

The crude cargo will be the first for Eni following an
authorization issued last month by the United States allowing
the resumption of an oil-for-debt deal that had been halted by
the Trump administration in 2020.

A similar authorization was issued by the US State
Department to Repsol, but PDVSA’s schedules seen by
Reuters news agency this week did not show an assigned loading window for
the Spanish oil company.

The European firms are the first to resume oil-for-debt
swaps that until 2020 were the sole Washington authorisations
for exporting Venezuelan crude under sanctions seeking to oust
President Nicolas Maduro.

Washington has not made similar allowances for U.S. oil
major Chevron, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp
or France’s Maurel & Prom, which have
lobbied the US State Department and U.S. Treasury Department
to take oil in return for billions of dollars in accumulated
debts from Venezuela.

Chevron also sought an authorization to trade Venezuelan oil
and expand operations in the OPEC-member country, but the U.S.
Treasury Department in May only granted it permission to
maintain assets in Venezuela through November.

The swaps could contribute to larger crude exports and
shipments, even though the volumes to be allocated to the
companies are not expected to represent more than 10 percent of
Venezuela’s exports.

Eni’s chartered tanker, the Greece-flagged Aframax Minerva
Zoe, was crossing the Caribbean Sea on Friday approaching an
area where tankers bound for Venezuela wait for assigned loading
windows, according to Refinitiv Eikon.

The vessel is scheduled to load at PDVSA’s Jose port in the
coming days, the document showed.

Source: Reuters

An oil tanker chartered by Italian oil
company Eni SpA to carry 650,000 barrels of diluted
crude oil supplied by Venezuelan state-run PDVSA arrived on
Friday in Venezuelan waters, according to a document from the
state-run firm.

The crude cargo will be the first for Eni following an
authorization issued last month by the United States allowing
the resumption of an oil-for-debt deal that had been halted by
the Trump administration in 2020.

A similar authorization was issued by the US State
Department to Repsol, but PDVSA’s schedules seen by
Reuters news agency this week did not show an assigned loading window for
the Spanish oil company.

The European firms are the first to resume oil-for-debt
swaps that until 2020 were the sole Washington authorisations
for exporting Venezuelan crude under sanctions seeking to oust
President Nicolas Maduro.

Washington has not made similar allowances for U.S. oil
major Chevron, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp
or France’s Maurel & Prom, which have
lobbied the US State Department and U.S. Treasury Department
to take oil in return for billions of dollars in accumulated
debts from Venezuela.

Chevron also sought an authorization to trade Venezuelan oil
and expand operations in the OPEC-member country, but the U.S.
Treasury Department in May only granted it permission to
maintain assets in Venezuela through November.

The swaps could contribute to larger crude exports and
shipments, even though the volumes to be allocated to the
companies are not expected to represent more than 10 percent of
Venezuela’s exports.

Eni’s chartered tanker, the Greece-flagged Aframax Minerva
Zoe, was crossing the Caribbean Sea on Friday approaching an
area where tankers bound for Venezuela wait for assigned loading
windows, according to Refinitiv Eikon.

The vessel is scheduled to load at PDVSA’s Jose port in the
coming days, the document showed.

Source: Reuters