Venezuela resumes oil shipments to China despite US sanctions

Venezuela has resumed direct shipments of oil to China after US sanctions sent the trade underground for more than a year, Report says, citing TASS.

According to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data and internal documents from state company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the first tanker to resume Venezuelan transport directly to China was the Kyoto, identified by shipping monitoring service TankerTrackers.com. It was loading 1.8 million barrels of heavy crude at Venezuela's Jose port in late August.

The direct shipments come ahead of January's transition of power in the United States from Republican President Donald Trump to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Their advisers have said he would retain sanctions but shift the focus of US strategy.

The resumption of direct imports by China comes after Washington earlier this year, took action against Russia's Rosneft units, and later went after shipping firms that continued to do business with PDVSA following trade sanctions first imposed in early 2019.