Latest

Developing story: GUNVOR COLOMBIA SAS, a subsidiary of Gunvor, has been caught participating in an elaborate trade scheme involving PDVSA crude. The crude produced in Venezuela was being exported as "residual oil" to Curaçao and Panama, and then delivered to Swiss Terminal's (subsidiary of Houston-based SGR Energy) storage in Barranquilla. On the import side there were Petroworld SAS, La Operadora SAS, Krystal Energy SAS.

There is one record that distinguishes the administrations of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro with previous governments in Venezuela: amount of international lawsuits brought against PDVSA. Reasons are varied, but it all comes down to yet another unique characteristic of both Chavez and Maduro: total disregard for contracts and its legally binding aspects. Law is not something that was ever going to stand in the way of the Bolivarian Revolution. If it could not be amended on the fly to suit revolutionary needs, it would just be ignored.

Russian oligarchs have become unpalatable, toxic. The social contract that existed between them and countries in the Western world that took / launder their money has been upended due to Vladimir Putin's Ukranian invasion. It wasn't always like that. There was a time when Roman Abramovich showed up in London with his loot and every last member of every establishment celebrated his business prowess, but above all else his largesse. He bought mansions, yachts, a very famous football club, and plenty of access. No one, nowhere, ever questioned origin of his wealth, and word got out.

The Ukraine invasion and meeting between President Biden's officials and Nicolas Maduro in Caracas has awoken PDVSA experts. These days, every "Venezuela energy sector expert" talking to the media is making unsustainable remarks about its alleged capacity to fill the gap that sanctions on Russia's energy will create in the market. They talk about "spare capacity... ability to increase production to 600,000 barrels a day rapidly... release of millions of barrels held in the strategic reserve... Venezuela taking Russia's place in U.S.

UPDATED 23/05/2022 - Listen to this about Martin Rodil from Bloomberg. Compare to this report about an extortion ring operating in Spain, led by Martin Rodil:

U.S. government officials Juan Gonzalez, Jimmy Story and Roger Carstens officially traveled to Venezuela over the weekend for talks with Nicolas Maduro. Carstens had already been to Caracas in early December to discuss the CITGO 6. People seem surprised by what they perceive as a change of heart at the White House, ignoring that Carsten and Bill Richardson had already visited Maduro (unofficially).