Russian oil giant Rosneft claims US approved oil deliveries from Venezuela to India
Since the Venezuelan oil that Rosneft has been sending to factories in India was bought with prepaid contracts, the US State Department gave approval for these shipments, said Vice President of the Russian company Didier Casimiro as quoted by RBC news agency.
“We are allowed to use Venezuelan oil because the Venezuelan oil that we supply to refineries in India is under Rosneft’s prepaid contracts. Therefore, the US State Department gave its consent,” Casimiro said.
He also added that the company had already stopped supplying Indian refineries with Iranian oil.
Venezuelan oil was bought by Indian company Reliance. The company revealed that the companies getting deals to ship this oil were doing so to lower Venezuelan PDVSA’s debt. Reliance also stressed that it had notified the Department of State about the deals.
The Indian company’s message appeared after Reuters reported that Rosneft was involved in a scheme that allowed Venezuela to skirt the ban on paying for shipments in dollars (the country is under US sanctions).
Rosneft denounced Reuters’ story, calling it a lie and informational sabotage, and announced plans to seek the help of law enforcement “to prevent news agencies from conducting illegal activities” in Russia.
Later, the news agency amended the story. Among other things, the agency stressed that “experts did not find the Russian company to be in violation of sanctions”.