Creditors prowl Caribbean for ‘Venezuela oil’

Bloomberg

Laden with 400,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil, the Icaro sits in the azure waters of the Caribbean just off the Dutch island of Curacao. It’s been there more than a month, and it’s not going anywhere until state-owned oil company PDVSA pays its bills.
The Icaro has become an unlikely but telling symbol of Venezuela’s woes. And it shows how even before the US sanctions imposed, PDVSA was facing trouble getting its oil delivered to customers around the globe. That could worsen as the regime looks to offset the loss of its US market.
The obstacle isn’t the Trump administration, but some PDVSA’s suppliers — from tow-boat operators to ship owners that transport oil. They’ve grown increasingly frustrated at not getting paid for their services. So they’re turning to Caribbean courts to get the right to seize Venezuelan oil aboard vessels like the Icaro, until some kind of settlement is reached.
“Many of PDVSA’s creditors ran out of patience and were looking to secure their positions,” said Jan A.M. Burgers, a Curacao-based lawyer who
specialises in maritime law. “There’s no more logical or better way to do it” than to seize cargoes.
At least four companies have used the tactic since US oil company ConocoPhillips successfully arm-wrestled PDVSA, or Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in Dutch Caribbean courts last year as part of a global legal war to recoup a $2 billion arbitration award.
Conoco obtained court orders to detain an armada of 12 Venezuelan oil tankers transiting the Caribbean, while filing legal papers in courts from New York to Hong Kong.
Trump’s sanctions amounted to the latest US move to pressure Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro to accept a peaceful transfer of power to Juan Guaido, whom the US recognises as the nation’s interim president. Trump’s action will effectively block PDVSA from exporting crude to the US Venezuela was once Latin America’s largest oil producer. Now it’s pumping less than North Dakota, yet oil exports remain its main source of dollar revenues.
PDVSA has taken steps to avoid the seizures, by trying to avoid the Caribbean islands.