THE HAGUE, January 15. /TASS/. An oil tanker from Venezuela has docked at the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, where the feedstock will be temporarily placed into storage as instructed by the US government, NOS television said.
Two of the world’s largest commodity traders, Trafigura and Vitol, are involved in moving Venezuelan oil to Caribbean countries for further resale. To this end, they plan to store oil batches in Curacao and the Bahamas. There are four tankers near the Venezuelan coast at present, NOS said. Trafigura and Vitol are expected to receive in total about 4.8 mln barrels of Venezuelan oil for further deliveries to storage facilities in the Caribbean.
The arrival of Venezuelan oil meets the interests of Curacao, which wants to restore the role of the island in international energy logistics. The local government puts its stake on storage, transshipment and logistics with the use of existing infrastructure amid the island’s biggest refinery being idle for more than five years, with huge investments needed for its restart.
Prime Minister of Curacao Gilmar Pisas highlighted the huge opportunity that has presented itself for the island amid these developments, underscoring the economic potential of operations with oil. According to NOS, local authorities do not consider cooperation in the oil storage sphere in the context of US actions in Venezuela as politically sensitive and focus on possible benefits for the Curacao economy, despite the remaining uncertainty in the region.
US leader Donald Trump said earlier that Venezuelan authorities will transfer from 30 to 50 mln oil barrels for sale to the United States and that he would control receipts from this transaction.