Venezuela’s opposition has presented an emergency fuel import project that would require 17 medium-range product tankers.
The move represents a counter proposal to President Nicolas Maduro’s plan to trade with US-sanctioned countries.
Plan details
According to the supply blueprint reported by Argus Media, 13 MR tankers each with a carrying capacity of 340,000 barrels will be used to ship petroleum products from the US, Colombia, Curacao or Aruba to Venezuela every month.
They will be able to supply 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline, 40,000 bpd of diesel and built inventories of 1.4m barrels of oil products initially.
In addition, the opposition plans to use another four MRs to replenish oil stocks in the country.
This import project is expected to involve crude-for-product swaps with Citgo Petroleum, a US-based refiner owned by Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Opec member’s national oil firm.
It is not immediately known how many ships Venezuela will need to charter from the international market based on this proposal, which will only materialise on the departure of Maduro.
According to VesselsValue, PDV Marina, PDVSA’s shipping arm, has four MRs, three suezmaxes and 13 aframaxes.
The project was unveiled by former PDVSA board member Jose Toro Hardy and National Assembly Deputy Elias Matta, both of them in the opposition camp of Juan Guaido.
The political struggle between Maduro and Guaido has been ongoing since early 2019, with the former backed by the military and the latter being reconised by about 60 countries – including the US – as Venezuela’s interim president.
Sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, Venezuela has faced a worsening domestic fuel crisis due to the lack of maintenance on upstream and refining facilities.
Iran shipments
Aside from trading with Cuba, the Maduro regime has managed to receive 1.53m barrels of gasoline in five tanker shipments from Iran in recent weeks.
But Hardy said the Iranian supply can only cover 15 days of consumption in Venezuela. “This is not a solution that can be maintained over time,” he said on the Plan Pais website that explains the opposition’s policies.
