Secret Transfer of 44 Million Liters of Iran’s Gasoline to Venezuela

A tanker tracking company reported that a shipment of 44 million liters of gasoline from the Islamic Republic, which was sent “secretly” to Venezuela, arrived at the Port of El Palito on Saturday, March 22.

Tanker Trackers, a ship tracking company, tweeted that it had monitored the aforementioned shipment for six weeks, which was being carried by the tanker “Forest.”

According to this report, two Iranian tankers, Faxon and Fortune, arrived in Venezuela with gasoline shipments before the Forest tanker.

It is expected that other Iranian tankers will arrive in Venezuela with gasoline shipments in the coming weeks.

Bloomberg News reported in December of this year that 10 Iranian tankers carrying oil products (gasoline) were headed to Venezuela.

The United States has sanctioned the sale of Iranian and Venezuelan oil, and in recent months has seized a 1.2 million barrel shipment of gasoline and a 2 million barrel shipment of oil from the Islamic Republic that was destined for Venezuela. However, Iran insists that these shipments were sold to its foreign partners or private companies and no longer constitute Iranian government shipments.

However, the United States says it has sold the gasoline shipment and will also sell the oil shipment. The money from these shipments will be deposited into a fund supporting victims of state terrorism in the United States.

Most of Venezuela’s refining capacity has been shut down due to lack of investment and poor management, and the Islamic Republic is the only country that has been sending gasoline and ultra-light oil (gas condensates) to Venezuela since the beginning of the current solar year.

To avoid detection, these shipments are sent to Venezuela by tankers with their signals turned off, bypassing the Suez Canal and taking a much longer route around South Africa instead.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on February 15 that Iran has begun sending a new round of chemicals for gasoline production to Venezuela. At the beginning of the current solar year, Iran had also sent chemical catalyst shipments to Venezuela.

In this regard, Argus publication reported on Friday, March 1, that the first shipment of Iranian catalyst for gasoline production arrived in Venezuela on February 11, and the second shipment arrived in Venezuela on February 17, last Wednesday.

The publication reported, citing an informed source, that 20 similar shipments are scheduled to be loaded from Iran through Venezuelan airlines, and in each flight two or three Iranian specialists are also being sent to launch Venezuela’s defunct refineries.

Catalyst shipments for gasoline production were sent to Venezuela’s Cardon and Amuay refineries.

In May of this year, Iranian specialists were also sent to the country to carry out repairs at two Venezuelan refineries.

One of these refineries was Cardon, which caught fire in the catalytic cracking unit one month after being repaired by Iranian specialists in July 2020. The second refinery was “El Palito,” where the efforts of Iranian specialists to start it up were unsuccessful.

Source: Radio Farda