The ships Athenas and Tina 5 made several deliveries of crude oil without their movements being detected by maritime tracking applications.
14ymedio, Havana, June 13, 2024 — At the beginning of June, experts wondered where the British agency Reuters had obtained the data that allowed it to say that Venezuela had tripled its shipments of crude oil to Cuba in May, compared to the previous month. The answer came in the form of a hypothesis that has yet to be confirmed: two large “ghost” ships, the Athenas and the Tina 5, made several deliveries of Venezuelan crude oil without their movements being detected by maritime tracking applications. There is very little information about these tankers that Caracas uses to send oil to allies such as Cuba. More than discreet, the movements of both ships are invisible, although their sporadic appearances on the radar account for their activity in the Caribbean
Sources for 14ymedio indicate that Venezuela resorted to both ships to transport part of the 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil that it sent last month to the Island. They disconnected their transponders to dodge the radar and “transferred their cargo to smaller ships in the bay of Nipe, in the provinces of Holguín and Matanzas,” says an expert who closely follows oil shipments to Cuba.
There is very little information about the tankers that Caracas uses to send oil to allies such as Cuba
However, in the port of Matanzas there were signs of the tankers Primula, the Marianna V.V. and the Caribbean Alliance having docked in the last 30 days, in addition to the tugboat Karadeniz One, which is part of the fleet of Turkish patanas on the Island. This Thursday, the tankers with the Cuban flag Sandino, María Cristina and Alicia were at the terminal. In Nipe, on the other hand, there is no information about the movement of ships, although the tracking applications showed an unidentified tanker in the middle of the bay this Thursday.
The Athenas and the Tina 5 are oil tankers of considerable size. The Tina 5, built in 2002, sails with the flag of Panama. The latest information indicates that it left Trinidad and Tobago for an unknown destination.
As for the Athenas, which sails with the Liberian flag, it was located this Thursday on the northern coast of Venezuela, heading to the port of Scarborough, in Trinidad and Tobago.
Some 10% – 708,900 bpd – of the total shipments in May of PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company, went to Cuba, according to Reuters. The main destination of crude oil, more than a third of total exports (250,000 bpd), was Asia. The United States follows, with an average of 205,000 bpd sent by the American Chevron, and Europe, with 129,000 bpd.
A study published at the end of May by the Elcano Institute, based in Madrid, analyzed this increase in Venezuelan exports in light of the announcement of the return of Washington’s sanctions after the non-compliance, by the regime of Nicolás Maduro, with the agreements made in Barbados to guarantee free elections.
The investigation analyzed the extent to which the imposition of sanctions had benefited Cuba. The PDVSA has progressively increased its shipments to the Island through its subsidiary PDV Marina to circumvent Washington’s measures.
The sale of Venezuelan oil, since then, has been characterized by the increase in corruption and the lack of transparency “in response” to the United States. The PDVSA has not published financial reports since 2016. It uses the black market and sells to “companies willing to take the risks,” with the mediation of Cuba, Russia, Iran, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, which have “secondary sanctions” from Washington. Russia and Iran influence the PDVSA when making oil decisions.
Russia, the investigation explains, managed 60% of the PDVSA’s financial operations before the invasion of Ukraine and delivered dollars in cash to Venezuela. As for Iran, it is known that it sends technical support, engineers, thinning substances and spare parts.
Meanwhile, the American network CNN published on Tuesday a report on the debacle of the Venezuelan economy since 2013 – when Maduro took office – and contrasted the oil exports at the time – 2.4 million bpd, on average – and the current ones, which in March reached 895,000 bpd. According to CNN, Venezuela exploits 42% of its production capacity.
“The collapse of the sector precedes the strategy of maximum international pressure on the Maduro regime and finds its cause in the deficit of governance that has accompanied the country for at least a decade”
The Elcano Institute’s investigation coincided with the chain of events in which the future of oil in Venezuela faces difficulties that are too difficult to solve in the current political situation: “The short period of détente [the six months of lifting of sanctions] has shown that, regardless of the political future of Venezuela, the recovery of its oil sector will be difficult. The collapse of the sector precedes the strategy of maximum international pressure on the Maduro regime and finds its cause in the deficit of governance that has accompanied the country for at least a decade,” they explained.
In addition, Venezuelan crude oil itself has technical drawbacks. Orinoco crude, the Institute analyzes, is extra-heavy and has “less attractiveness” for international companies due to the high cost of its refinement. In addition, the PDVSA has been delegitimized internationally after “two decades of inefficient management, corruption and looting,” not to mention the infrastructure, which was noticeably damaged.
With the progressive debacle of the oil industry, Cuba has a lot to lose. Shipments from Venezuela – along with those of other key allies, such as Mexico and Russia, which the Pashin tanker, escorted by a war fleet, has just sent to the Island – are indispensable to operate the country’s deteriorated energy system.
Hit by a new blackout season, Cuba faces a generation deficit of 1,240 megawatts this Thursday. The Electric Union, which has not raised its head for months, stressed on a daily basis the precariousness of its facilities and the lack of fuel on which it blames all its ills. In addition, it reported that several units of its key thermoelectric plants – Mariel (Artemisa), Felton (Holguín), Nuevitas (Camagüey) and Renté (Santiago de Cuba) – are out of service.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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