PDVSA Changes Oil Deals to Include Shipping as Sanctions Bite
Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA has begun offering to ship its own oil, figuring in the costs in crude supply deals to help customers who have struggled to hire vessels to carry the country’s oil due to U.S. sanctions, according to company documents seen by Reuters.The United States has blacklisted vessel owners, shipping operators and threatened to sanction any tanker facilitating the country’s oil exports as it tightens restrictions on trade with the South American country.Washington has been trying to weaken socialist President Nicolas Maduro by choking the OPEC member’s oil exports, depriving the government of petrodollars — its main source of revenue.Most shipping firms are avoiding Venezuela because of the sanctions…
Tanker Carrying Kurdish Oil Reappears Unladen off Israel
A tanker carrying crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan reappeared unladen on Aug. 19 about 30 kilometres off the coast of Israel, ship tracking data on Reuters showed. This is the second time the Kamari has appeared in the area in the last two weeks carrying Kurdish oil. The tanker Kamari was partly laden north of Egypt's Sinai on Aug. 17, tracking showed, before it turned off its satellite transponder until early on Aug. 19. It was not possible to determine where the oil had been delivered to or who the buyer was. A spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Natural Resources did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment on Wednesday. The KRG has previously denied selling oil to Israel "directly or indirectly".
Invsat Solution Features DAMA
One of the most innovative maritime communications developments in recent years has been launched by telecom systems integrator, Invsat, with the introduction of a broadband data application communications solution configured to offer DAMA (Demand Assigned Multiple Access) protocol, which Invsat developed to operate initially on Loral Skynet’s Telstar 12 satellite. DAMA is typically a single-hop satellite transmission network that allows direct connection between any two nodes in the network among many users sharing a dedicated “pool” of satellite transponder space. With DAMA, customers sign up to a service level agreement (SLA) and can opt for a number of flexible usage bands, reflecting the size of their network. Subscribers also pay network maintenance.
