"Secret" Transfer of 44 Million Liters of Iranian Gasoline to Venezuela
A tanker tracking company reported that a shipment of 44 million liters of Iranian gasoline, which had been "secretly" sent to Venezuela, arrived at the port of El Palito on Saturday, March 18.
Tanker Trackers, a tanker tracking company, tweeted that it had been monitoring the cargo, which was being carried by the tanker "Forest," for six weeks.
According to this report, two Iranian oil tankers, the Faxon and Fortune, had also arrived in Venezuela with a cargo of gasoline before the Forrest tanker.
Other Iranian tankers are expected to arrive in Venezuela with gasoline cargoes in the coming weeks.
Bloomberg News reported in December this year that 10 Iranian tankers carrying petroleum products (gasoline) had set sail for 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 Iranian oil bound for Venezuela, but Iran insists that these shipments were sold to its foreign partners or private companies and are no longer considered Iranian government shipments.
However, the US says it will sell the gasoline cargo and sell the oil cargo. The money from these cargoes will be deposited into the US State Department's Victims of Terrorism Fund.
Much of Venezuela's refining capacity has been idled due to lack of investment and inefficient management, and the Islamic Republic is the only country that has been sending gasoline and ultra-light oil (gas condensate) to Venezuela since the early months of this solar year.
To avoid being tracked, these shipments are sent to Venezuela by tankers that travel with their signals off, bypassing southern Africa and taking a very long route instead of passing through the Suez Strait.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported on February 15 that Iran had begun sending a new round of chemicals for gasoline production to Venezuela. Earlier this year, Iran had also sent chemical catalyst shipments to Venezuela.
In this context, the Argus newspaper 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 via Venezuelan airlines, and two or three Iranian specialists will be sent on each flight to launch defunct Venezuelan refineries.
Catalyst shipments have been sent for gasoline production at the Cardon and Amoa refineries in Venezuela.
In May of this year, Iranian specialists were also sent to Venezuela to carry out repairs at two refineries.
One of these refineries was Cardon, which suffered a fire in its catalytic cracking unit in July 2020, a month after being repaired by Iranian specialists. The second refinery was El Palito, which Iranian specialists' attempts to restart failed.
Source: Radio Farda
