An oil tanker is seen at sea outside the Puerto La Cruz oil refinery in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. IMAGE: Reuters / Alexandra Ulmer
Venezuela will do everything possible to minimize effects of US sanctions against Venezuelan energy giant PDVSA on the global oil market, according to remarks by Venezuela’s National Representative to OPEC, the technical adviser at Venezuela’s PDVSA company and Petroleum Ministry Ronny Romero.
“Yes, we are facing new illegal sanctions from the US. We were exporting about 500,000 bpd to the US. PDVSA will redirect exports to other customers in Europe and Asia,” Romero told Sputnik.
Commenting on the threat of US sanctions against European and Asian customers, he stated that currently Washington’s sanctions apply only to US entities.
“Anyway, Russia and China don’t care about US sanctions”, he added noting that Venezuela would “do our best in order to not affect the market”.
Last week, the US blocked all PDVSA’s assets in its jurisdiction and imposed a ban on deals with the oil company. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin explained the move by claiming that the US was preserving the assets of the company in the interests of the people of Venezuela and also protecting its own market. Washington claimed that sanctions will be fotened if Caracas transfers control over the company to opposition leader Juan Guaido or any “democratically” elected government.
