VENEZUELA RESUMES DIRECT OIL SHIPMENTS TO CHINA, SHUNS U.S. SANCTIONS

Venezuela has resumed direct shipments of oil to China after US sanctions sent the trade underground for more than a year, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data and internal documents from state company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Luc Cohen and Marianna Parraga reported for Reuters.

Chinese state companies China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and PetroChina - long among PDVSA's top customers - stopped loading crude and fuel at Venezuelan ports in August 2019 after Washington extended its sanctions on PDVSA to include any companies trading with the Venezuelan state firm. The first tanker to resume transport of Venezuelan crude directly to China was the Kyoto, identified by shipping monitoring service TankerTrackers.com while loading 1.8 million barrels of heavy crude at Venezuela's Jose port in late August.

The imposition of the sanctions was part of a push by the Trump administration to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but they failed to completely halt the South American nation's oil exports or to loosen Maduro's grip on power.

PDVSA's customers instead boosted shipments to Malaysia, where transfers of cargoes between vessels at sea have allowed most of Venezuela's crude to continue flowing to China after changing hands and using trade intermediaries. PDVSA, CNPC, PetroChina and Venezuela's oil ministry did not reply to requests for comment. A US Treasury Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that "those engaged in activity in the Venezuelan oil sector risk exposure to sanctions."