Trump Effect: Supertankers Sailing to Pick up Venezuelan Oil for China Turning Back

Two Chinese oil supertankers on their way to pick up Venezuelan oil made U-turns and headed back to Asia, reports indicate.

 

Reuters, citing Monday shipping data from LSEG, details two Chinese tankers were sailing to Venezuela to pick up new oil-for-debt cargoes before they decided to reverse course.

 

The Venezuelan socialist regime owes billions of dollars to the Chinese communist regime, a debt first accrued during the rule of late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez. At press time, no regime official has publicly disclosed the exact amount owed to China. Bloomberg reported on December that Venezuela’s credit exposure to China is estimated at $59.2 billion since 2005.

  

The Venezuelan regime has been paying its debt to China with shipments of sanctioned Venezuelan oil, with reports indicating that China has played a key role in helping Venezuela evade U.S. oil sanctions in recent years. In some instances, the China-bound Venezuelan oil has been “rebranded” as “Brazilian crude” to circumvent the sanctions.

 

Reuters set out Monday the recent return of the two Chinese tankers is a “sign” Venezuela may not be directly exporting oil to China, it’s major buyer, “any time soon.” In December, President Donald Trump ordered  a “total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela.

 

Last week, he signed an Executive Order safeguarding Venezuelan oil revenue held in U.S. Treasury accounts from attachment or judicial process, with the aim of “ensuring these funds are preserved to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives.”

 

  

RELATED: Donald Trump — “We’re in Charge” in Venezuela

 

 

 

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