<article><p><i>Adds new Eni statement, Trinidad minister remarks.</i></p><p class="lead">A floating oil storage and offloading vessel (FSO) that was listing off Venezuela's coast has been stabilized and a transfer is planned, according to Italy's Eni, a minority partner of Venezuelan state-owned PdV at the field where the <i>Nabarima</i> has been moored for 10 years.</p><p>"The conditions of the FSO are stable and a recent water leak has already been solved," Eni said today.</p><p>Eni holds a 26pc stake in the PetroSucre joint venture controlled by PdV. The Corocoro field had been producing around 11,000 b/d of medium-quality crude before it was suspended in August 2019.</p><p>In a follow-up statement this afternoon, Eni said "as reported by [the] operator there is currently no risk of oil spill" and the company "is collaborating with PetroSucre to define and implement a program for unloading the oil cargo from <i>Nabarima</i>." The implementation of the program using a dynamic positioning tanker and technical services is not prevented by US sanctions, the company said.</p><p>The firm added that it "performs its activities in Venezuela in compliance with international agreements and laws; Eni's crude liftings are part of credit recovery programs that fall within exceptions granted under the sanctions regime."</p><p>Venezuelan contractors and workers on and off the <i>Nabarima</i> have described broken equipment and a lack of maintenance that they say contributed to flooding of the vessel's engine room in recent days. The fresh water came from internal equipment and has since receded. </p><p>PdV and oil ministry officials told <i>Argus</i> this week that the around 1.15mn bl of stored crude would be transferred to another vessel in order to stabilize the FSO, but it did not disclose concrete plans.</p><p>The crude has been stored on the small double-hull very large crude carrier (VLCC) for more than a year, mainly as a result of PdV's difficulties in finding buyers in the face of US sanctions. But an FSO is not designed to hold oil for a prolonged period of time, but rather to be filled and emptied on a regular basis, taking in production and offloading the crude onto tankers.</p><p>Eni denied that it hired technicians to assess the vessel, as reported earlier to <i>Argus </i>by a PetroSucre official.</p><p>The workers say they remain concerned about conditions on the <i>Nabarima</i>.</p><p>The unit is moored in the Paria Gulf, close to Trinidad and Tobago where equipment suppliers have been approached to assist in addressing the issue.</p><h3>Trinidad on stand-by</h3><p>Trinidad is ready to activate a bilateral oil spill contingency plan with Venezuela, but the transfer of oil from the FSO is affected by the US sanctions, the Caribbean country's energy minister Franklin Khan said.</p><p>"The contingency plan will govern our response to any eventuality," Khan said. "Parties are free to request assistance from each other." </p><p>The vessel is now at full capacity and the Venezuelan authorities say the ship is upright and in a stable condition "pending preparation for the transfer of the cargo to a contracted vessel," Khan said.</p><p>"The oil is then transferred to tankers for shipment abroad, but because of the sanctions the transfer vessels stopped operating."</p><p class="bylines">By Patricia Garip and Canute James</p></article>
