US targets PDVSA ships, companies with sanctions action

Catogory : Market Report

THE US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has renewed its sanctions efforts against Venezuela, identifying and adding two companies and 35 ships to its financial sanctions list in an effort to stop illicit sales of the country’s oil. Officials said the US was continuing to take strong action against the regime of former President Nicolas Maduro by isolating “corrupt Venezuelan enterprises” and targeting Mr Maduro’s supporters in Havana “who continue to enable the oppression of the people of Venezuela”. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his department was taking action against “vessels and entities transporting oil, providing a lifeline to keep the illegitimate Maduro regime afloat.

”Cuba continues to profit from and prop up the illegitimate Maduro regime through oil-for-repression schemes as they attempt to keep Maduro in power .On April 5, Ofac designated two companies operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy and identified one vessel, which transported oil from Venezuela to Cuba, as blocked property that is owned by one of the two companies.

Ofac identified the vessel as the tanker Despina Andrianna, saying it delivered crude oil from Venezuela to Cuba during February and March 2019. The vessel is a Liberia-flagged, 2000-built, 71,637 dwt product tanker. Ofac identified 34 vessels as the blocked property of national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, SA, which it said were “designated on January 28, 2019, for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy”.