Venezuela Navy Forces Detain Three Ships In Relation To Fuel Smuggling Offences



By Milton Stuards,  

This week, Venezuela’s navy managed to detain three vessels that had become suspected of smuggling subsidized fuel from the country’s Paraguana refinery-filled peninsula, as reported by a local commander on Saturday.

On Monday, several sources reported that authorities have arrested seven people in relation to an alleged attempt of smuggling diesel in a tanker that is property of the PDVSA government-owned oil company.

Admiral Andres Gomez, a local navy unit commander, gave confirmation that the Negra Hipolita tanker was found at the Cardon refinery carrying an excess load of 50,000 diesel fuel barrels.

This week, the Venezuelan navy also detained two additional ships, both coming from Panama, again in relation to smuggling offences. The location at which they were apprehended was not made clear and PDVSA didn’t respond immediately to requests for an appropriate statement.

A whole tank of heavily-subsidized gasoline on the Venezuela market costs less than one US cent according to the black market exchange rate, which is quite the powerful stimulus for smugglers to take the product to near-by countries, where they would be able to sell it for prices near international market levels.

The Margio G vessel, which operated under a charter deal for PDVSA, was stopped by authorities at the Amuay oil refinery, carrying an excess of 1,018 fuel barrels, worth more than USD 186,000, commented Gomez.

 

Original article: https://www.vesselfinder.com/news/4283-Venezuela-Navy-Forces-Detain-Three-Ships-In-Relation-To-Fuel-Smuggling-Offences