Sunday, March 29, 2020

Rosneft Abruptly Exits Venezuela, Sells Assets To Russian State, Amid US Squeeze On Maduro

On Saturday Rosneft announced it has sold off all its Venezuelan oil assets to an unnamed Russian state entity.

"The government of the Russian Federation has acquired assets in Venezuela from Rosneft. A company 100% owned by the Russian Federation has become the owner," Russia's TASS said.

It's been widely reported that Rosneft has explored exit options since early 2019 when Venezuelan assets continued rapidly losing money, leading to worsened current operating conditions.

"As a result of the concluded agreement all assets and trading operations of Rosneft in Venezuela and/or connected with Venezuela will be disposed of, terminated or liquidated," Rosneft said.

All of this follows in mid-February the US slapping new sanctions on Rosneft Trading SA, a unit of Rosneft, and the company's executive Didier Casimiro, accusing it of being the "Primary culprit" of a campaign to evade Washington's pressure campaign on the Maduro government.

The Russian Federation controls Rosneft with just over 50% of its shares, while BP Plc is the second-largest shareholder with 19.75%, and Qatar's QH Oil Investments owns 18.93%. Rosneft's position has long been that US sanctions are illegal and that its own operations in Venezuela are commercial in nature, not political, after in prior months the company's cooperation with state-run PDVSA became an "Open secret".

"We don't know whether the new state entity is a cemetery corporation, where companies go to die, or whether the Russians are simply doing it to take Rosneft - which is their crown jewel and provides a large portion of Russia's income - out of the way of sanctions and Putin will use the new company to continue to help Maduro," he said.


https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/rosneft-abruptly-exits-venezuela-sells-assets-russian-state-amid-us-squeeze-maduro

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