Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  Rosneft Trading S.A., a Swiss-incorporated, Russian-owned oil brokerage firm.

By Gary Raynaldo        DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The U.S. Trump administration continued to tighten the economic noose around Venezuela, slapping sanctions on a subsidiary of Russian oil firm Rosneft it said is helping prop up the regime of Nicholas Maduro.  Last year, the U.S. recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the major OPEC nation’s legitimate interim president, followed by a series of economic sanctions against Maduro’s government.  The U.S. has accused  Russia, Cuba, and China as the major players helping keep Maduro in power a year after Guidao proclaimed himself as the Latin American nation’s president.  Rosneft Trading S.A., a Swiss-incorporated, Russian-owned oil brokerage firm, operates in Venezuela’s oil sector.

“As the primary broker of global deals for the sale and transport of Venezuela’s crude oil, Rosneft Trading has propped up the dictatorial Maduro, enabling his repression of the Venezuelan people.  Maduro has destroyed Venezuela’s institutions, economy, and infrastructure, while enriching himself and his cronies, through his abuse of state power and his welcoming of malign support from Russia, as well as from Cuba, Iran, and China.”

-U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo 

“While interim President Juan Guaido works with his coalition of international partners toward a better future for the people of Venezuela, Maduro is increasingly isolated and reliant upon the assistance of a small group of allied regimes that plunder Venezuela’s resources while he continues to repress Venezuelans.  The people of Venezuela have spoken out courageously against Maduro and his corrupt associates and continue to demand freedom and adherence to the rule of law.  The United States is committed to standing with them until democracy and prosperity is restored in Venezuela,” Pompeo said in a statement.

Additionally, Rosneft Trading board chair and president Didier Casimiro, who also serves as Rosneft’s Vice President for Refining, Petrochemical, Commerce and Logistics, was designated for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of Rosneft Trading.

Russia Foreign Minister Stands By Maduro  – Denounces U.S. Sanctions 

Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation at UN world headquarters New York  Sept. 27, 2019.

According to media reports, the move to sanction Rosneft Trading SA was cleared by President Trump, and Secretary of State  Pompeo discussed the issue with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich security conference in Germany last week.  Lavrov  slammed U.S. sanctions against Venezuela during a visit earlier this month to Caracas, providing a public show of support for President  Maduro as Washington tightens sanctions.

RECENT ROSNEFT TRADING  S.A.  ACTIVITY:

• In January 2020,  Rosneft Trading S.A. facilitated, on behalf of PdVSA, a shipment of two million barrels of Merey-16 crude oil from Venezuela to West Africa.
• In the fall of 2019,  PdVSA planned oil shipments with Rosneft Trading S.A. involving 55 million barrels of crude oil liftings from September to December 2019.
• In September 2019, PdVSA supplied a shipment of one million barrels of Merey-16 to Rosneft Trading S.A., which was loaded on a vessel in Venezuela and destined for Asia.
• In August 2019, Rosneft Trading S.A. negotiated a shipment of two million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil with PdVSA and was able to find a vessel willing to transport the cargo despite difficulties that came with doing business in Venezuela.

As with previous OFAC designations, U.S. sanctions need not be permanent and are intended to change behavior, according to the Department of the Treasury, which added that the “U.S.  has made it clear that we will consider lifting sanctions for those who take concrete, meaningful, and verifiable actions to support democratic order in Venezuela.” 

Concurrent with this action,   OFAC is issuing a general license that authorizes certain transactions and activities that are ordinarily incident and necessary to the wind down of transactions involving Rosneft Trading S.A., Department of Treasury said.

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of Rosneft Trading S.A. and Didier Casimiro that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by the designated individual and entity, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of the  Treasury