China Buys Venezuelan Oil Doctored To Skirt Sanctions

(Bloomberg, 22.Jan.2021) — It may be the oil market’s worst-kept secret: Millions of barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude, embargoed by the U.S., have been surreptitiously going to China. The cat-and-mouse games that avoid detection and sanctions include ship-to-ship transfers, shell companies and silenced satellite signals. But there’s another aspect to […]

OFAC Targets Individuals And Entities Helping Maduro

(Energy Analytics Institute, 19.Jan.2021) — US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC, slapped sanctions on three individuals, 16 companies and seven vessels for their alleged ties to networks trying to evade US sanctions imposed on Venezuela’s oil sector. The individuals targeted included Philipp Apikian, Alessandro Bazzoni, Francisco […]