Reuters WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) — The head of Russian oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin, flew to Caracas last week to meet Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and complain over delayed oil shipments designed to repay loans, two sources briefed on the conversation said on Saturday.
The visit, which was not publicly disclosed, is one of the clearest signs of strain between crisis-stricken Venezuela and its key financier Russia.
Over the last few years, Moscow has become Venezuela’s lender of last resort, with the Russian government and Rosneft handing Venezuela at least $17 billion in loans and credit lines since 2006, according to Reuters calculations.
State oil company PDVSA is repaying almost all of those debts with oil, but a meltdown in its oil industry has left it struggling to fulfill obligations.
Sechin and a large delegation of executives met with officials at PDVSA in a Caracas hotel last week. Sechin also met with Venezuela’s leftist leader Maduro, and chided him over oil-for-loans shipments that are behind schedule.
“He brought information showing that they were meeting obligations with China but not with them,” said one source with knowledge of the talks.
“They’re running around in PDVSA because of this,” added the source, asking to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to media.
The country’s oil production has fallen to just 1.17 million barrels-per-day, a 37 percent drop in the last year, according to reports from secondary sources to OPEC, leaving it struggling to ship Russian entities the roughly 380,000 bpd it has agreed to send, according to PDVSA documents seen by Reuters.
The closing of a dock at Venezuela’s main oil export port, through which the vast majority of shipments to Rosneft transit, has delayed millions of barrels in crude since August.
Sechin handed Maduro graphics about oil shipments to Russian entities compared with China, the two sources said.
Top financier China, which has plowed more than $50 billion into Venezuela, also gets reimbursed in oil.
According to Reuters calculations based on PDVSA data, the Caracas-based company delivered around 463,500 bpd to Chinese firms between January and August, a roughly 60 percent compliance rate. That compares with around 176,680 bpd to Russian entities, or a 40 percent compliance rate.
Rosneft and PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One of the sources with knowledge of Sechin’s visit, as well as two separate sources, said a Chinese delegation was also in Caracas this week.
Bron: Reuters
@Joep, De olieindustrie heeft sinds ze hier is altijd de politieke partijen gefinancieerd… De politieke partijen weten niet wat ze moeten doen zonder dat geld.
Juist Joep, niets aan toe te voegen.
Breek me de bek niet open over Kennedy Ruggenaath, eerwaarde Joep.
Hij en de PAR zouden de corruptie aanpakken en alle Pik Pisas benoemingen terugdraaien.
Meer dan een half jaar later is er nog geen enkele benoeming door de lolo van Soto teruggedraaid en blinkt Kennedy Ruggenaath vooral uit in het eindeloos snoepreizen.
En dan nog wil men hier vol blijven houden aan een upgrade van de refinery ???
Ik heb geen idee welk bedrijf zo dom is om geld te pompen in een oude raffinaderij, terwijl de aanvoer van olie niet kan worden gegarandeerd. Zelfs al zou Maduro nu opstappen dan nog duurt het jaren eerdat de olie installaties in Venezuela zover zijn hersteld dat ze weer genoeg kunnen leveren. En uiteraard gaan dan China en Rusland nog steeds voor.
Wanneer gaat het lichtje eens branden bij Ruggenaath en consorten dat we hier werkelijk aan een dood paard aan het trekken zijn ? Je kunt wel blijven hopen tegen beter weten in, maar uiteindelijk hebben we daar een hoop werklozen door, met een diep economische crisis als gevolg.
Ajo Curacao, geen olie China en Rusland eerst