Showing posts with label Cuba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cuba. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 July 2023

Venezuela oil export surpasses 700,000 barrels

Venezuela's oil exports in June rose 8% from the previous month to above 700,000 barrels per day (bpd), fueled by the restart of a key crude processing unit and faster approvals for cargoes departing its shores, according to shipping data and documents from state oil company PDVSA.

Exports by PDVSA and its joint ventures declined earlier this year as an extensive audit of oil sales temporarily froze most supply contracts and led to delays authorizing vessel departures.

Second quarter shipments flowed with less hiccups with US oil major Chevron consistently increasing Venezuelan crude exports to the US under a license extended by Washington, and with PDVSA renewing other contracts and signing new supply deals.

A total of 37 cargoes departed Venezuelan ports in June carrying 715,933 bpd of crude and refined products, and 294,000 metric tons of oil byproducts, according to the data and documents.

The main destination of Venezuelan exports, directly and through trans-shipments hubs like Malaysia, was China. Chevron's exports fell slightly to some 134,000 bpd from 150,000 bpd in May, while deliveries to ally Cuba rose to some 75,000 bpd last month, compared with 58,000 bpd in May.

Iranian companies received about 131,000 bpd of crude and fuel oil last month as part of a swap agreement that also allowed PDVSA to discharge 2.1 million barrels of Iranian condensate in recent weeks. Separately, Chevron supplied its joint ventures with a 450,000 barrel cargo of US heavy naphtha, the shipping data showed.

Venezuela's oil exports averaged 670,000 bpd in the first half of the year, almost 15% above the 585,000 bpd of the same period of 2022.

A 150,000-bpd crude upgrader operated by PDVSA and Russian state firm Roszarubezhneft restarted operations in mid-June following a December fire that caused extensive damages, one of the documents showed. The unit turns extra heavy oil into exportable grades.

The Petromonagas upgrader, which was producing some 73,000 bpd of diluted crude at the end of June, is the fourth oil processing facility now in service in the Orinoco Belt, Venezuela's main oil-producing region. It joined Petrolera Sinovensa, Petropiar and Petrocedeno in processing extra heavy crude. One upgrader remains offline.

PDVSA's inventories of upgraded and diluted crudes from the Orinoco jumped to some 6.1 million barrels at the end of June from 5.8 million barrels in May. But they stood below April's 7.5 million barrels, the documents showed.

 

 

Friday, 16 June 2023

Iran and Cuba sign agreements

In the final step of his three-nation tour of Latin America, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran visited Cuba on Thursday morning, Iran’s local time.

Upon his arrival in Havana, Raisi was warmly welcomed by his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel. They held private talks after the welcoming ceremony.

Iranian President is accompanied by a top economic and political delegation, including ministers of foreign affairs, oil, defense, and health.

Six cooperation documents and memorandums of understanding were signed between the senior officials of Iran and Cuba in the presence or Raisi and Diaz-Canel.

The cooperation agreements are in areas of comprehensive political cooperation, customs, digital communication, etc.

Raisi visited Havana after concluding his tour of Venezuela and Nicaragua. He started his tour of three Latin American states on Monday morning.

Amir Abdollahian said on Thursday that Iran and Cuba are among the pioneers of convergence in their own region.

“Iran and Cuba are among the pioneers in the development of regional convergence that can provide the opportunity for each other’s presence in coalitions formed on both sides of the globe,” he wrote on his Twitter account, according to Press TV.

Amir Abdollahian also said the two countries can cooperate in many fields, including biotechnology, medicine and nuclear energy.

Before starting his tour of Latin America, Raisi said Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba oppose hegemony and unilateralism in the world.

Raisi also met with Iranian businesspersons in Venezuela and Cuba.

In February, Amir Abdollahian had visited Nicaragua and Venezuela.

During Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s trip to Tehran in June 2022, the two countries signed a 20-year partnership agreement intended to bolster cooperation in various fields.

The partnership agreement includes cooperation in science, technology, agriculture, oil and gas, petrochemicals, tourism and culture.

 

 

Monday, 9 January 2023

Direct shipping line launched between Iran and Cuba

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said a direct shipping line has been launched between Iran and Cuba which is expected to significantly improve the economic relations between the two countries.

“A Direct shipping line has been established between Iran and Cuba since the last 20 days, which will increase the trade between the two countries,” Safari told IRIB on Monday.

“Based on the conducted research, our country has also the potential to cooperate with Cuba in carrying out various projects, especially in the field of energy,” the official said.

In May 2022, Iran and Cuba finalized a roadmap for barter trade between the two countries and signed a document in this regard during the 18th meeting of their joint economic committee in Tehran.

As reported, the document was signed by Iran’s Deputy Industry Minister for Commercial and Trade Affairs Mohammad-Sadegh Mofatteh and Cuba's Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz.

During the meeting, the officials explored the existing capacities and market needs of the other side in various fields and good agreements were reached for long-term cooperation in order to improve the level of trade exchanges.

The two countries also stressed the need for developing industrial, mining, and trade cooperation between the two countries during the mentioned event.

Attended by senior officials and representatives of various economic sectors from both sides, the 18th meeting of the Iran-Cuba Joint Economic Committee was held in Tehran during May 15-17, 2022.

As the special envoy of the Cuban president, Cabrisas Ruiz headed a high-ranking delegation to Iran with the aim of meeting with the officials of the Islamic Republic and attending the meeting of the two countries’ joint economic committee.

During his stay in Tehran, Cabrisas Ruiz also met with Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ehsan Khandouzi, during which he stressed the expansion of economic ties between the two countries.

Speaking in this meeting, Khandouzi stated that the Iranian government has always welcomed the establishment of long-term and stable economic relations with Latin American countries, especially Cuba.

“Given the excellent political relations between the two countries, Cuba is of particular importance to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.

Referring to the history of cooperation between the two countries in the fields of health and agriculture, Khandouzi emphasized the need to improve economic relations between the two countries and said: “We are expected to take more serious steps to develop cooperation and implement agreements.”

The minister further pointed to the lack of proper knowledge regarding business and economic opportunities and advantages of trade and investment between the two countries as the most important reason for the weak trade collaborations between Iran and Cuban private sectors.

He then announced Iran’s readiness to hold online meetings with the presence of representatives of the government and private sectors of Iran and Cuba in order to exchange knowledge about the business and investment opportunities of the two countries.

 

Thursday, 30 December 2021

Cuba signs Belt and Road agreement with China

Reportedly Cuba and China have signed a cooperation plan to push forward construction projects under Beijing’s overseas infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Chinese Embassy in Cuba announced the agreement on its website on December 26, 2021 saying that the deal was inked two days earlier by He Lifeng, Head of China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, and Cuban Vice Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas.

The agreement implemented a memorandum of understanding the two nations signed in 2018, when Cuba agreed to become a BRI participating nation.

Under the agreement, the two nations aimed to work together on projects in several key sectors, including communications, education, health and biotechnology, science and technology, and tourism, according to the Agencia Cubana de Noticias news agency.

The Chinese Embassy also stated that a timetable and a roadmap had been proposed to implement the projects, without giving details.

China launched the BRI in 2013 in an effort to build Beijing-centered land and maritime trade networks by financing infrastructure projects throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. In recent years, critics have denounced Beijing for using “debt-trap diplomacy” to lure countries into its initiative.

Many countries have surrendered pieces of their sovereignty after failing to pay off Chinese debts. For example, China Merchants Port Holdings is now running Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port on a 99-year lease, after the South Asian country converted its owed loans of US$1.4 billion into equity in 2017. Seizing the port has allowed Beijing to gain a key foothold in the Indian Ocean.

The Chinese regime has also sought to partner with countries rich in natural resources—such as African BRI participants Ghana and Zambia—in order to gain access to these raw materials to drive the Chinese economy.

It appears that China has its eyes set on Cuba’s natural resources, as a Chinese researcher told China’s state-run media outlet Global Times on December 26 that the BRI agreement was good because China and Cuba “have strong economic complementarities.”

The researcher was quoted as saying that “Cuba is rich in mineral and oil resources, and is a major source of nickel ore for China.” Cuba has one of the world’s largest nickel deposits in the world.

China has been Cuba’s important energy partner. Chinese companies have supplied wind turbines to Cuba’s wind farms and overseen the construction of Cuba’s first biomass-fired power plant at Ciro Redondo.

The US-based organization American Security Project, in an article published in March, warned about Cuba’s energy dependency on China and Venezuela as having “serious implications for hemispheric security.”

In addition, the Chinese paramilitary has also provided “counter-terrorism” training to the Cuban military and police forces responsible for suppressing anti-government protesters.

In fact, China has an ambition that goes beyond just Cuba. During a Senate hearing in March, Craig Faller, a retired admiral and a former commander of the US Southern Command, warned that Beijing seeks to “establish global logistics and basing infrastructure in our hemisphere in order to project and sustain military power at greater distances.”

Faller told lawmakers at the hearing that China was on a “full-court press” in order to achieve its ambition.

“I look at this hemisphere as the front line of competition,” Faller said. “Our influence [in this hemisphere] is eroding. … It is important that we remain engaged in this hemisphere.”

During a press briefing following the hearing, Faller described the Chinese regime’s influence as “insidious,” “corrosive,” and “corrupt.”

“Some examples include their pursuit of multiple port deals, loans for political leverage, vaccine diplomacy that undermines sovereignty, state surveillance IT, and the exploitation of resources such as illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing,” Faller said.

A month after Faller’s warning Stephanie Murphy introduced a bill requiring several US federal agencies, including the State Department, to put together a report for Congress. The report would assess China’s influence in Latin America and the Caribbean.

One of the issues the report would examine is China’s relationship with Cuba and Venezuela. Another is China’s efforts to exploit natural resources in the region.

“It is critical for US policymakers to understand what China is doing in the region and to have an effective strategy in place to counter China’s aggressive conduct and to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its actions,” Murphy said, according to a statement from her office.