Most of the oil tankers owned by Venezuela remain in such run-down condition that they do not have accreditation by flag countries and are at danger of accidents, spills, fires, and sinking, an internal report by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, solely shown Reuters, has actually revealed.
PDVSA has an overall of 22 oil tankers. Over half of them are unsuited to deliver crude and ought to be either sent out for repair work right away or withdrawn from usage, according to the report prepared by the maritime branch of PDVSA.
The report states that the PDVSA fleet, after years of disregard and held off needed upkeep, now has “low levels of dependability,” and the tankers are not safe to run.
” The ships presently do not have seaworthiness category and accreditations by flag countries,” according to the report shown Reuters.
The audits and reports on the state of Venezuela’s petroleum market continue after Nicolas Maduro bought them at the end of in 2015 in a probe into corruption and into billions of missing out on payments from oil exports.
The report on the tanker fleet from PDVSA’s system PDV Marina suggests that 5 tankers be eliminated from service, 7 be sent out for significant repair work, and interactions devices, transponders, and fire extinguishers be set up on others.
With its own tankers in disarray, PDVSA needs to rent tankers– at greater costs– from professionals happy to deal with the Venezuelan state oil company and manage its oil, which is under U.S. sanctions.
In 2015, PDVSA rented 41 tankers, according to the report seen by Reuters.
Previously this year, Venezuela was stated to be preparing to contract a shipyard in its ally Iran to construct 2 Aframax tankers The tankers are set to cost $33.77 million each, Reuters reported in February, pointing out a PDVSA file.
Venezuela, Iran, and now Russia have actually been utilizing a growing ‘ dark’ or ‘shadow’ fleet of oil tankers to avert the sanctions on their oil exports.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
More Leading Reads from Oilprice.com:
.