09.03.2017, 18:23
PdV crude cargo at risk of seizure in Caribbean
OREANDA-NEWS. A court on St. Maarten is scheduled to rule tomorrow on a petition by 11 shipowners to seize a cargo of crude oil belonging to Venezuelan state-owned PdV to cover more than $30mn in overdue tanker charter fees.
The cargo is one of at least 11 tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in the Caribbean that are currently subject to legal battles over dirty hulls and unpaid debt, a PdV official in the company?s supply and trading division tells Argus.
In the St Maarten case, the owners of the Liberian-flagged vessels are seeking to collect the overdue debt by forcing the sale of 545,000 bl of crude in a tanker currently anchored off NuStar Energy's storage terminal in St. Eustatius, another tiny island in the Dutch Antilles.
PdV has petitioned the court to reverse a lien placed on the crude cargo by attorneys for the shipowners so that the crude can be offloaded and stored in tanks the Venezuelan company leases from NuStar.
The shipowners represented by Dutch Caribbean law firm VanEpps Kunneman VanDoorne want the crude sold and the proceeds placed in escrow until a UK court hearing the same claim in a separate suit against PdV issues a ruling.
The shipowners oppose allowing PdV to offload the oil because they say NuStar could place a hold on the cargo to pressure the firm to pay overdue debts for terminal and storage services.
NuStar is already believed to be retaining control up to 1mn bl of PdV crude currently in storage on St. Eustatius until the Venezuelan company catches up on overdue debt payments, a St. Maarten court official familiar with the dispute tells Argus.
NuStar could not be immediately reached for comment.
"I expect we will see more cases like this because PdV moves a lot of oil through the Caribbean, and particularly the Dutch Caribbean," an attorney with VanEpps Kunneman VanDoorne said.
The injunction sought by the 11 shipowners to force the crude sale is reflective of cash-poor PdV's growing downstream operational difficulties beyond Venezuela's territorial borders.
The company had over 4mn bl of crude and refined products aboard almost two dozen tankers as of mid-February that were prohibited from offloading or departing from nearby Caribbean terminals because of dirty tanker hulls it could not afford to clean and non-payment of other past-due debts, including charter, tugboat, mooring and storage fees.
The oil company is particularly exposed in the Caribbean islands controlled by the Netherlands. Aside from the storage lease on St. Eustatius, PdV operates the 325,000 b/d Isla refinery on Curacao and its US downstream unit Citgo plans to upgrade another 280,000 b/d refinery in Aruba that was formally operated by US firm Valero.
PdV needs the nearby offshore facilities mainly to store and blend its diluted crude oil from the Orinoco heavy oil belt.
The cargo is one of at least 11 tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in the Caribbean that are currently subject to legal battles over dirty hulls and unpaid debt, a PdV official in the company?s supply and trading division tells Argus.
In the St Maarten case, the owners of the Liberian-flagged vessels are seeking to collect the overdue debt by forcing the sale of 545,000 bl of crude in a tanker currently anchored off NuStar Energy's storage terminal in St. Eustatius, another tiny island in the Dutch Antilles.
PdV has petitioned the court to reverse a lien placed on the crude cargo by attorneys for the shipowners so that the crude can be offloaded and stored in tanks the Venezuelan company leases from NuStar.
The shipowners represented by Dutch Caribbean law firm VanEpps Kunneman VanDoorne want the crude sold and the proceeds placed in escrow until a UK court hearing the same claim in a separate suit against PdV issues a ruling.
The shipowners oppose allowing PdV to offload the oil because they say NuStar could place a hold on the cargo to pressure the firm to pay overdue debts for terminal and storage services.
NuStar is already believed to be retaining control up to 1mn bl of PdV crude currently in storage on St. Eustatius until the Venezuelan company catches up on overdue debt payments, a St. Maarten court official familiar with the dispute tells Argus.
NuStar could not be immediately reached for comment.
"I expect we will see more cases like this because PdV moves a lot of oil through the Caribbean, and particularly the Dutch Caribbean," an attorney with VanEpps Kunneman VanDoorne said.
The injunction sought by the 11 shipowners to force the crude sale is reflective of cash-poor PdV's growing downstream operational difficulties beyond Venezuela's territorial borders.
The company had over 4mn bl of crude and refined products aboard almost two dozen tankers as of mid-February that were prohibited from offloading or departing from nearby Caribbean terminals because of dirty tanker hulls it could not afford to clean and non-payment of other past-due debts, including charter, tugboat, mooring and storage fees.
The oil company is particularly exposed in the Caribbean islands controlled by the Netherlands. Aside from the storage lease on St. Eustatius, PdV operates the 325,000 b/d Isla refinery on Curacao and its US downstream unit Citgo plans to upgrade another 280,000 b/d refinery in Aruba that was formally operated by US firm Valero.
PdV needs the nearby offshore facilities mainly to store and blend its diluted crude oil from the Orinoco heavy oil belt.
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