Iran swapping gasoline for Venezuelan jet fuel

Iran delivered more gasoline to Venezuela late last month, picking up jet fuel in exchange.

The Iran-flagged Forest, one of Iranian state-owned NIOC's vessels that has supplied irregular shipments of gasoline to Venezuela since mid-2020, unloaded 277,000 bl of gasoline at Venezuelan state-owned PdV's El Palito terminal on 20 February, according to shipping data obtained by Argus.

The tanker is currently loading 130,000 bl of jet-A1 at PdV's Cardon terminal for transport to Malaysia.

Two other Iranian tankers, the Faxon and the Fortune, delivered over 400,000 bl of gasoline to PdV at the end of January and departed with jet fuel cargoes earmarked for delivery to Iran, according to PdV bills of lading seen by Argus.

PdV is using Iranian tankers that travel to and from Venezuelan terminals with their transponders switched off in what the oil ministry describes as "controlled fleet operations" meant to defy US sanctions against the two countries.

PdV has substantial jet fuel stocks since the Covid-19 pandemic grounded nearly all Venezuelan domestic and international commercial flights almost a year ago. Jet-A1 stocks at the 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex in Falcon state, which includes the 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery and 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery, also have been increasing since PdV repair crews on 22 February restarted a kerosene treatment unit which had been out of service since the end of 2019.

PdV and NIOC expect to expand their swap trade volumes this year including refined products and crude as PdV brings more downstream capacity back on stream and raises crude production, a senior Venezuelan oil ministry official said.

"The US sanctions are hurting the Venezuelan people but will not prevent us from strengthening oil relations with Iran," the ministry official added.

Caracas paid for initial deliveries of Iranian gasoline to Venezuela in May-June 2020 with gold, Venezuelan officials have said.

Since December, Venezuela has restored some flights to a handful of destinations, including the Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, Bolivia and Turkey.