PDVSA fights against US repressive measures to maintain gas supply

Criminal policy of blocking all types of economic relations between Venezuelan State and rest of the world, one of whose facets are financial and operational sanctions to any bank or company that negotiates with PDVSA, repeatedly affects gasoline and other products generated supply to population .

The legal report issued by the state indicates that the measures have boycotted the ongoing businesses, as they limit and even prevent PDVSA refining establishment from receiving resources in bolivars and currencies demanded for execution of operational plans, investments and maintenance of refineries .

Preventing normal policy of functioning of the industry, which includes refineries, in addition to suffering caused to the population, has been accompanied by dispossession of PDVSA assets, whose material and monetary damages have been estimated at approximately 137,000 million dollars.

The huge figure, equivalent to 17 times the amount of the country’s international reserves, includes 30,000 million dollars in oil assets and 7,000 million blocked and confiscated.

“The prohibition of financial operations such as e issuance of PDVSA bonds, has caused visible loss of opportunities to develop productive operations and finance ongoing businesses,” says a 2018 report.

One of the problems caused by sanctions is the difficulty and even impossibility of obtaining spare parts and equipment and new technologies for maintenance and updating refineries. The narrowness slows the start-up of refining complexes, with consequent irregular supply of gasoline to the country’s Service Stations.

Given the criminal action of the sanctions, the Venezuelan State has been in need of importing gasoline from distant countries, through shipping companies that raise their costs due to exposure to sanctions.

Importation of fuel from distant countries adds greater exposure to climatic changes that delay the delivery of fuel, as well as equipment, spare parts and additives indispensable for national production of gasoline.