Venezuelan Government News

Chevron Corp on Saturday received a U.S. license allowing the second-largest U.S. oil company to expand its production in Venezuela and bring the South American country's crude oil to the United States.The decision grants broader rights for the last big U.S. oil company still operating in U.S.-sanctioned Venezuela. However, it restricts any cash payments to Venezuela, which could reduce the oil available to export.License terms are designed to prevent state-run oil firm Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA PDVSA.UL, from receiving proceeds from Chevron's petroleum sales, U.S. officials said.

A year after a Colombian oil tanker captain was murdered by Venezuela’s military, his widow says she still cannot claim his pension to support their two sons as the Venezuelan government refuses to authenticate his death certificate.Jaime Herrera, 59, was shot dead on board the tanker in February 2020 by officers tasked with guarding his crew, according to a Reuters investigation published last year that highlighted his death as an example of Venezuela's lawlessness.Now, Herrera’s widow, Claudia Fortich, says the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia has left her in a desperate limbo without the legal right to access his savings.

A U.S. Navy ship navigated near the Venezuelan coast on Tuesday in what the U.S. military's Southern Command called a "freedom of navigation operation," a day after a cargo ship from U.S. foe Iran docked at a port of the South American country.In a post on its website, the Southern Command said the USS Nitze, a missile destroyer, sailed in an area outside Venezuela's territorial waters - which extend some 12 nautical miles from its coasts - but within an area the Venezuelan government…

Mercantile & Maritime said on Monday it would terminate its shipments of Venezuelan oil for Rosneft after the United States imposed sanctions on the Russian oil firm's Swiss trading unit.Washington imposed sanctions in February on Rosneft's Geneva-based unit Rosneft Trading (RTSA), accusing it of providing a financial lifeline to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government.Last month when the sanctions were announced, the company issued a statement calling the actions  against Rosneft’s subsidiary RTSA and its Chairman "illegal…

The Panama Canal will allow vessels coming from Venezuela to transit the waterway provided they present the necessary paperwork, the canal authority's chief said on Wednesday, suggesting a new round of U.S. sanctions on the South American country may not make any difference to canal traffic.President Donald Trump's administration last week issued an executive order freezing all Venezuelan government assets in the United States. Shortly thereafter, U.S. officials ratcheted up threats against companies that do business with Venezuela.The measure did not explicitly place sanctions on non-U.S.

Maritime contractor Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) is considering to stop managing Venezuelan state-oil company PDVSA's tankers by the end of this month or in April following U.S. sanctions against the country, BSM said on Thursday.It also said in a statement that recent political developments made managing assets for the Venezuelan government "an almost impossible task", and it was working on returning Venezuelan vessels to PDVSA's maritime arm PDV Marina and its subsidiaries.The German firm, which operates a fleet of 15 PDVSA vessels and has worked in the Latin American country for almost 25 years, said returning tankers to PDV Marina has proven to be "a difficult task considering the lack of resources" in Venezuela."Nevertheless…

Last July 6, Major General Manuel Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of oil workers in prayer in a conference room at the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.The career military officer, who for the past year has been boss at the troubled state-owned oil company, was at no ordinary mass. The gathering, rather, was a ceremony at which he and other senior oil ministry officials asked God to boost oil output."This place of peace and spirituality…

The Trump administration is considering sanctioning a Venezuelan military-run oil services company and restricting insurance coverage for Venezuelan oil shipments to ratchet up pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro, a U.S. official said. With Maduro running for another term in an April election that Washington and its allies oppose as a sham, the United States is weighing sanctions that would target Venezuela’s vital oil sector beyond what has been done before, the official told Reuters on Wednesday. Some measures could come before the vote and others could be imposed afterwards.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting dealings in certain Venezuelan public sector debt on to pressure the government of President Nicolas Maduro to halt its "tyranny," the White House the White house said on Friday.   The order prohibits dealings in new debt and equity issued by the Venezuelan government and by its state oil company, PDVSA. But the White House said the order allows Treasury to provide licenses for other commercial and humanitarian transaction, including financing for commercial trade, petroleum exports and imports and transactions that only involve PDVSA's U.S. unit, Citgo.     (Reporting by David Lawder and Tim Ahmann)

U.S. oil markets were readying for fallout from potential U.S. sanctions on Venezuela's vital oil sector on Monday after Sunday's election in the struggling country was deemed a "sham" by Washington. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday celebrated the election of a new legislative superbody that will have the power to dissolve state institutions such as the opposition-run Congress. Countries around the world denounced the vote. U.S. crude futures jumped above $50 a barrel for the first time in two months early in the session before retreating, after U.S.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials as the country's opposition launched a two-day strike on Wednesday, heaping pressure on unpopular President Nicolas Maduro to scrap plans for a controversial new congress. Venezuela's long-time ideological foe the United States targeted the country's army and police chiefs, the national director of elections, and a vice president of the state oil company for alleged corruption and rights abuses. U.S. President Donald Trump spared Venezuela for now from broader sanctions against its vital oil industry, although such actions were still under consideration. U.S.

Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA, sent a tanker in October to the Caribbean with the expectation that its cargo of crude would fetch about $20 million - money the crisis-stricken nation desperately needs. Instead, the owner of the tanker, the Russian state-owned shipping conglomerate Sovcomflot, held the oil in hopes of collecting partial payment on $30 million that it says PDVSA owes for unpaid shipping fees. Despite a longstanding alliance between Venezuela and Russia, Sovcomflot sued PDVSA in St. Maarten, a Dutch island on the northeast end of the Caribbean. "The ship owners ... imposed garnishment on the aforementioned oil cargo," reads a March decision by the St. Maarten court.

Venezuela's request to review a $46 million compensation claim it has been ordered to pay to oil service company Tidewater was rejected and the stay on the award's execution lifted, a World Bank tribunal said in a decision posted on its website on Wednesday. The South American OPEC country had sought a revision "based on what it describes as an error in the tribunal's damages calculation," an International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes' (ICSID) tribunal said in its decision. The award includes around $44 million in owed invoices.

Nexus Consulting, says an 'administrative mistake' led to the Venezuala detention of a US-flagged ship. Background: Venezuelan authorites arrested a U.S. ship captain early Thursday after three assault rifles were found on board. Nexus Consulting is proud to announce that all charges against the master and crew of the US-Flagged vessel detained in Venezuela have been dropped. The vessel is finally on its way home, with all crew, cargo and anti-piracy weaponry having been returned by the Venezuelan government as of 1800 Sept 14th. Nexus would like to thank the maritime unions SIU and AMO as well as Congressman Delahunt of Massachusetts and the owners and operators for their support during this ordeal.

The first high-specification tugboats featuring ComAp InteliGen NT Marine equipment are now in full operation providing South American oil company Petroleos de Venezula (PDVSA) with fully owned assets capable of quick response to firefighting operations and maneuvering tankers at Venezuelan oil terminals. Previous to the Venezuelan general strike of 2002-2003, PDVSA had a fully leased fleet, leaving it vulnerable in the crude oil loading and unloading operations. As a result the Venezuelan government decided to acquire its own tugboat fleet from Cuba…

Friede Goldman Halter, Inc. announced that it has recently finalized six new contracts with a total value of approximately $40 million. -The Venezuelan government for the construction of two 153-foot LCU-type logistics support vessels. Financing for the project has been secured through the Export-Import Bank and all guarantees have been obtained. Construction for the vessels is anticipated to begin during the second quarter at the company's Moss Point Marine shipyard in Escatawpa, MS and delivery is slated for the fourth quarter of 2001. -Atwood Oceanics for the design and construction of a deepwater mooring system. The 8-point combination traction-winch/windlass mooring system will be installed on the Atwood Eagle…

Friede Goldman Halter, Inc. announced that it has recently finalized six new contracts with a total value of approximately $40 million. · The Venezuelan government for the construction of two 153-foot LCU-type logistics support vessels. Financing for the project has been secured through the Export-Import Bank and all guarantees have been obtained. Construction for the vessels is anticipated to begin during the second quarter at the company's Moss Point Marine shipyard in Escatawpa, MS and delivery is slated for the fourth quarter of 2001. · Atwood Oceanics for the design and construction of a deepwater mooring system. The 8-point combination traction-winch/windlass mooring system will be installed on the Atwood Eagle…

ConocoPhillips and the Venezuelan government were unable to reach agreement regarding ConocoPhillips’ migration to an Empresa Mixta structure mandated by Venezuela decree law 5.200. Therefore, pursuant to the decree, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) or its affiliates will directly assume the activities associated with ConocoPhillips’ interests in the Petrozuata and Hamaca heavy-oil ventures and the offshore Corocoro development project. While negotiations are continuing between ConocoPhillips and Venezuelan authorities concerning appropriate compensation for the company’s interests, the company expects to record a complete impairment of its entire interest in its oil projects in Venezuela of approximately $4.5 billion…

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, wants Venezuela oil tankers going to places other than the US, according to a VHeadline report. Although the US is the No. 1 buyer of Venezuela oil, Chavez prefers to earn greater political power by selling oil at a discount to Caribbean and South American countries than at a premium to the US. Additionally, Chavez just increased the government's take of royalties on oil profits from 1% to 30% and increased the tax rate from 34% to 50%. As a result, any non-Venezuelan company is now required to turn over more than 75% of its profits to the Venezuelan government and an increasing amount of Venezuelan oil production is government controlled, according to the report.

As the strike in Venezuela enters its second week, Intertanko expresses deep concern over safety levels at terminals and waterways in the area. With 90-95 percent of employees of state oil company PDVSA out in strike, the Venezuelan government is reportedly attempting to replace striking workers by inexperienced military personnel and ex-employees. As the strike has been expanded to include pilots, tugs and crew on board PDSVA's own tankers, several episodes have been reported where berthing and unberthing manoeuvres have been undertaken under what appears to be unsafe conditions. Intertanko expresses fear that recent actions by government and military forces will contribute to increased antagonism, prolonging the crisis and disruption to refinery and shipping activities.

Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with SeaAmerica Cruise Lines, Inc., based in Hollywood, Fla. Under the MOA, LSS and SeaAmerica will develop a ship design leading to contract negotiations for the construction of two 42,000-ton, 1,000-passenger cruise ships. The program will include options for two additional ships. Construction of the ships would utilize both of Litton Ship Systems' production facilities, Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula and Litton Avondale Industries in New Orleans, and would maximize the resources and experience of both shipyards to achieve operating synergies. Accommodations will include 87 percent outside cabins (most with private balconies)…