Customers of the joint ventures of PDVSA, the state run oil company of Venezuela are being asked to make payments of their dues in an account that has been recently opened at Russia’s Gazprombank AO according to a report published by Reuters citing information from sources.
This move was made by the oil company after strict financial sanctions were imposed on the state gun oil company of Venezuela which were aimed to prevent revenues from the oil sale of the country reaching the current President Nicolas Maduro. The sanctions were imposed on January 28.
The opposition would set up a fund so that they are able to receive the revenues generated from the sale of Venezuelan oil, said the supporters of the opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela - Juan Guaido recently.
Guaido has been recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state by a number of countries including the United States. Guaido has been described as a U.S. puppet who is trying to engineer a coup, Maduro has said.
Quoting sources in Venezuela and elsewhere, the Reuters report further stated that a number of joint venture partners of PDVSA who are engaged in production in the crucial Orinoco Belt producing area are being asked whether they would go on with their projects in the region and make a formal declaration of the same.
Norway’s Equinor ASA, U.S.-based Chevron Corp and France’s Total SA are among the joint venture partners.
“We would like to make formal your knowledge of new banking instructions to make payments in U.S. dollars or euros,” wrote PDVSA’s finance vice president, Fernando De Quintal, in a letter to the PDVSA unit that supervises its joint ventures on February 8 this year.
Bank accounts in the United States and Europe were managed to be maintained by the joint venture partners of PDVSA so that they could transact money against sale of oil even while the earlier round of sanctions in 2017 by the US were in force. And in order to the Chinese based accounts of PDVSA, correspondent banks in the United States and Europe were used by the joint venture partners of PDVSA.
Information about the new banking instructions were conveyed to customers by the state-run PDVSA a number of weeks ago and has now initiated a process of shifting the accounts of the joint ventures with the aim of being able to separately export crude. Since the sanctions were imposed on Venezuela by the US, a number of the PDVSA partners have withdrawn their staff from Caracas.
All of the US companies working in Venezuela were given a deadline to allow them to stop all activities in the country following the imposition of the sanctions. the US companies include Chevron and oil service companies Halliburton Co, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes and Schlumberger NV.
A new temporary government under the leadership of Guaido has been encouraged to be recognised by the European Union to its member countries until such time that fresh free and fair elections are held in Venezuela. Maduro can also come under financial sanctions by Europe so that all of his access to revenues generated from oil are denied.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
This move was made by the oil company after strict financial sanctions were imposed on the state gun oil company of Venezuela which were aimed to prevent revenues from the oil sale of the country reaching the current President Nicolas Maduro. The sanctions were imposed on January 28.
The opposition would set up a fund so that they are able to receive the revenues generated from the sale of Venezuelan oil, said the supporters of the opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela - Juan Guaido recently.
Guaido has been recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state by a number of countries including the United States. Guaido has been described as a U.S. puppet who is trying to engineer a coup, Maduro has said.
Quoting sources in Venezuela and elsewhere, the Reuters report further stated that a number of joint venture partners of PDVSA who are engaged in production in the crucial Orinoco Belt producing area are being asked whether they would go on with their projects in the region and make a formal declaration of the same.
Norway’s Equinor ASA, U.S.-based Chevron Corp and France’s Total SA are among the joint venture partners.
“We would like to make formal your knowledge of new banking instructions to make payments in U.S. dollars or euros,” wrote PDVSA’s finance vice president, Fernando De Quintal, in a letter to the PDVSA unit that supervises its joint ventures on February 8 this year.
Bank accounts in the United States and Europe were managed to be maintained by the joint venture partners of PDVSA so that they could transact money against sale of oil even while the earlier round of sanctions in 2017 by the US were in force. And in order to the Chinese based accounts of PDVSA, correspondent banks in the United States and Europe were used by the joint venture partners of PDVSA.
Information about the new banking instructions were conveyed to customers by the state-run PDVSA a number of weeks ago and has now initiated a process of shifting the accounts of the joint ventures with the aim of being able to separately export crude. Since the sanctions were imposed on Venezuela by the US, a number of the PDVSA partners have withdrawn their staff from Caracas.
All of the US companies working in Venezuela were given a deadline to allow them to stop all activities in the country following the imposition of the sanctions. the US companies include Chevron and oil service companies Halliburton Co, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes and Schlumberger NV.
A new temporary government under the leadership of Guaido has been encouraged to be recognised by the European Union to its member countries until such time that fresh free and fair elections are held in Venezuela. Maduro can also come under financial sanctions by Europe so that all of his access to revenues generated from oil are denied.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
