Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) has confirmed it will hand back all the tankers it manages for Venezuela's PDVSA, saying it has become "almost impossible" to work with the government.
The manager is reported to operate 13 ships owned by PDVSA and two VLCCs jointly owned by the oil company and China’s PetroChina.
BSM Cyprus (BSM CY) managing director Nikolaos Kretsis told TradeWinds that the company has worked successfully in Venezuela for almost 25 years.
"During that period, BSM CY and our subsidiaries have managed several vessels under the ownership of numerous Venezuelan governments," he added.
"The recent political developments have significantly changed the outlook of the country and we have now reached a point where managing assets for the Venezuelan government has become an almost impossible task.
"The recent sanctions imposed by the US, as well as the fact that sanctions now extend outside the US, brings us to the point where we are considering stopping the management of vessels for the Venezuelan government by the end of March 2019/early April 2019."
He said redelivering the tankers to maritime division PDV Marina has proven to be a difficult task considering the lack of resources in the country.
"Nevertheless, our intention is to try and hand back all the vessels to PDV Marina and its subsidiaries as soon as practically possible," Kretsis added.
Maritime emergency declared
The company said it will continue to provide uninterrupted services to all other customers. "Our operations in the rest of the world remain active, safe and reliable," it added.
Earlier this month, PDVSA said it was still working with BSM despite reports the company was taking crew off 10 managed tankers.
Reuters cited internal PDVSA documents as saying that BSM had notified it of the decision.
PDV Marina then declared a maritime emergency due to a lack of staff to take over the vessels.
Reuters reported that three other ships operated by BSM for PDVSA remain anchored in Portugal and Curacao until the resolution of legal disputes.
BSM is said to be owed $15m by PDVSA.
