In an attempt to dodge international sanctions, the state owned Venezuelan oil company, PDVSA, is now running oil out of Cuba by transferring shipments between tankers at the island’s north-western port town of Matanzas.
Thomson-Reuters reports that, according to their shipping data tracked over the course of the last three months, Venezuelan tankers have been docking at Matanzas, transferring the oil from one tanker to another, and then transporting that oil to other countries in Asia, as their tracking data have showed that at least two tankers filled with over 500,000 barrels of fuel-oil had left Matanzas by way of Venezuela en route to Singapore.
The use of the port at Matanzas is not new, as PDVSA, through Cuba’s state-run oil firm Cupet, has used Matanzas to store Venezuelan crude and fuel in the past but exports from the terminal to Asian destinations are rare.
In another sanctions dodging tactic, PDVSA in the past used its own or leased tankers to bring Russian crude from storage in the nearby Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao to Cienfuegos. But it is now transferring the imported Russian oil at sea in Cayman Islands’ waters.
