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Iran And Venezuela Strike Oil Swap Deal

By Irina Slav | Oilprice.com | September 27, 2021

Iran and Venezuela have struck a deal to swap heavy Venezuelan crude for Iranian condensate, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deal.

According to these sources, the swaps are set to begin this week and last for six months, although they could be extended. The imports of Iranian superlight crude will help Venezuela revive its falling oil exports amid U.S. sanctions that, among other problems, have cut off the country’s access to the light oil that is used to blend with its superheavy to make it exportable.

For Iran, the deal will bring in heavy crude it could sell in Asia, the Reuters sources also said. The diluted Venezuela crude will also likely go to Asian buyers.

Reuters also reported that, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, the deal could constitute a breach of sanctions, to which both Venezuela and Iran are subjects.

“Transactions with NIOC by non-U.S. persons are generally subject to secondary sanctions,” the Treasury Department said in response to a Reuters request for comments on the deal. It added that it “retains authority to impose sanctions on any person that is determined to operate in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.”

Despite the sanction noose, Venezuela has been ramping up its oil exports, generating vital revenue. According to a recent Reuters report, the country, which is home to the world’s largest oil reserves, exported more than 700,000 bpd of crude in July—the highest daily export rate since February.

Most of the oil went to China and Malaysia, although the latter is usually only a stop along Venezuelan oil’s trip to China. The same report noted that three of the five crude oil blending facilities in the Orinoco Belt were operational, and another crude upgrader was preparing to restart operations after a year’s pause.

Iran, meanwhile, recently revealed plans to attract some $145 billion in oil and gas investments from both local and foreign sources.

“We plan to invest $145 billion in the development of the upstream and downstream oil industry over the next four to eight years, hence I welcome the presence of domestic and foreign investors in the industry,” Javad Owji, Iran’s new oil minister, said during a meeting with executives from China’s oil giant Sinopec.

September 28, 2021 - Posted by | Economics | , , ,

6 Comments »

  1. Good on ’em! Break the back of (illegal; war crimes) economic sanctions…right in the US’ backyard. Viva Venezuela! Viva Iran!

    Liked by 1 person

    Comment by roberthstiver | September 28, 2021 | Reply

  2. “Reuters also reported that, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, the deal could constitute a breach of sanctions, to which both Venezuela and Iran are subjects”.

    Sanctions? Sanctions applied by the USA would have no legal status, would they? This is the USA, imposing its will on trades that don’t involve the USA, ie “Interfering” in the business of other countries”(which the USA accuses Russia of doing to the USA.
    The American government, is a criminal organisation.. The “prestige” of the USA, around the World has hit “rock bottom”…..

    Liked by 1 person

    Comment by brianharryaustralia | September 28, 2021 | Reply

  3. Brian, I may come from across the ocean as less than a patriotic US citizen, but I think I have the right: enlisted Army service in the American War On Vietnam era (1963-67), career federal civil servant (1967-99)…so I will observe that I wouldn’t mind if the (Zio)US empire, flailing and treading water and failing as it is, undertook to sink like the “rock” you mention to the “bottom” of the deep blue seas. Maybe we could rise like a phoenix and recover and really try the noble experiment of “By the People, Of the People, For the People [ALL the People, Home and Abroad]” as the ideal took form 200-plus years ago, but I’m not hopeful. Time for us to join the other empires of history, from the falling/demises of which we’ve learned nothing. So be it.

    P.s. The US Treasury “sanctions” unit, plus the State “sanctions” unit, are infested with Zionists. Criminal, indeed; and psychotic….

    Viva humanity! Every last living soul!

    Liked by 1 person

    Comment by roberthstiver | September 28, 2021 | Reply

    • I had to register for the draft to fight in Vietnam as an 18 year old, but, luckily, i was not selected. Birth dates were drawn out of a barrell and if your birthday came out, you were “Press Ganged” into the army(is how it was done in Australia). My older brother had to fight in Vietnam.
      504 Australians died in Vietnam(and 58,600 Americans.) I fervently hope that those brave young men, on the other side, are waiting for Henry Kissinger when HE dies(along with the 6,000,000+ Vietnamese who died as well. With any luck, Presidents Johnson and Nixon will have had to face them already(along with Mr McNamara……..)

      Liked by 1 person

      Comment by brianharryaustralia | September 28, 2021 | Reply

      • …and let us not forget “Westy”: Gen. William Westmoreland who, time after time, promised “victory” against the peasant Vietnamese if only he were authorized an additional 100,000 “cannon fodder” troops, or 300,000, or 500,000….

        And his “legacy” lives on, and on, and on, with former and current military “professionals”….

        Liked by 1 person

        Comment by roberthstiver | September 29, 2021 | Reply

        • Yes, of course, General Westmoreland, urging the President to send him more men, so that HE could complete his task.(like Earl Haig, British General in WW1, urging the British PM to send him more men, to be fed into the European “MINCE GRINDER”, as if they were worthless animals(that would give HIM victory)…….
          Is it any wonder, at the end of the American War in Vietnam, that the very brave American soldiers, were “Fragging” their superior Officers?……..They had nothing left to lose……..

          Liked by 1 person

          Comment by brianharryaustralia | September 29, 2021 | Reply


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