![]() ![]() PDVSA’s maritime crisis is uniquely dire, said George Los, a senior tanker market analyst at U.S. I can’t think of any situation similar to this anywhere else in the world right nowĪ supervisor at PDVSA’s Western division on Monday confirmed the accident but declined to answer further questions. ![]() The Professional Union of Scuba Divers and Marine Staff from Zulia state had previously requested that PDVSA replace the propellers with a different propulsion system, the organization said. Jose Bermudez, a 40-year-old father of two, drowned after the line connected to his air supply got tangled in the propeller on his boat, according to union representatives. In nearby Maracaibo Lake – where tankers are stained at the export terminals – a scuba diver died in an accident this week while inspecting a leaking pipeline. The crews here have washed so many vessels in recent months that they have dubbed their operation “the boatwash.” The workers labored just offshore from Amuay beach, near a tourist hub and PDVSA’s largest refinery. In a scene witnessed by Reuters in April, workers wearing scuba suits baked on the deck of a small boat as they reached out with brushes to scrub the Caspian Galaxy, a tanker leased for one trip by a PDVSA customer. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The work – which involves scouring ships above and below the water line – can take up to ten days per vessel, a worker involved in the cleaning said. So workers on a small fishing boat clean the giant tanker with thousands of scrub-brush strokes. Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the nation’s social spending.Īt oil export terminals around the world – where crude leaks like those in Venezuela are relatively rare – an oil-stained tanker would normally be taken out of the water and cleaned with industrial equipment in a dry dock.īut Venezuela has just one small dry dock and lacks the cash or the time to send its soiled tankers there for proper cleaning, according to the PDVSA executives, ship captains and two workers from tanker cleaning companies. VENEZUELAN PRESIDENCYĪlthough embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro insists the government has maintained social programs, he has publicly acknowledged that lower oil prices have left the government with less money to finance them. When oil prices were high, crude and fuel exports almost entirely financed an elaborate system of government price controls and social subsidies that maintained the popularity of late President Hugo Chavez, the socialist firebrand. Venezuela’s crude exports declined 8 percent to 1.69 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter versus the same period in 2016, according to Thomson Reuters data. Because Venezuela relies on oil for more than 90 percent of export revenues, the problems of its state-run oil company pose a national crisis. The lagging exports crimp the flow of cash back to the country’s crippled socialist economy, as citizens struggle daily amid soaring inflation and shortages of food and medicine. The tankers sidelined for cleaning provide a vivid example of the firm’s downward spiral: Lacking the cash to properly maintain ships, refineries and production operations – or to pay business partners on time – PDVSA can’t boost exports, which is its only option for raising more cash. Neither PDVSA nor Venezuela’s Oil Ministry responded to requests for comment about the firm’s maritime operations. Other reasons include delayed repairs and impoundments by service providers that are owed money by cash-strapped PDVSA. ![]() The laborious hand-cleaning operation is one of many causes of chronic delays for dozens of tankers that deliver Venezuela’s principle export to customers worldwide, according to three executives of the state-run firm, eight employees of maritime firms that contract with PDVSA and Thomson Reuters vessel-tracking data. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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