The narrative of the Nicolás Maduro regime that it is “giving birth” because it does not have the money to “pay the salary increase or the training of the Armed Forces” due to embezzlement from the oil industry -yes, you read correctly, embezzlement, they are no longer the sanctions– committed by an unscrupulous group without civic conscience, nor ethics, stateless, amoral, is the post-truth that now wants to impose.
It seeks to divert the frustration of Venezuelans for the miserable salary they receive, trying to empathize with “who is giving birth.” He appeals for compassion with the person “ultimately responsible” for what is happening in Venezuela, from crimes against humanity according to the UN Independent International Mission for Venezuela to the money extraction from the nation’s coffers.
The result of the audit carried out by the new president of the Venezuelan state oil company, Colonel Rafael Tellechea, has been the instrument to distort the reality of the great robbery of the century. Because PDVSA has been the biggest source of corruption since the “robolution” came to power in 1999 with Hugo Chávez and continued as of 2013 with his successor.
The oil minister and president of PDVSA in the days of the “eternal commander”, Rafael Ramírez, recognized the lousy administration in the documentary Oil and ruin – The Venezuelan exodus from German television DW: “You have to put things in their place, I do believe that at least 30% [210.000 millones de dólares] of our income went into the hands of corruption and waste”.
On this occasion, the news agency Reuters echoed the “big blow to Maduro.” He reported last Tuesday, March 21 – a day after Tareck el Aissami made his resignation public in a tweet – that “the number of accounts receivable from the Venezuelan state oil company reached 21.2 billion dollars after resorting to almost unknown third parties Since three years ago [2020 -2022]” –period that corresponds to Asdrúbal Chávez in the presidency of PDVSA and Tareck el Aissami as Minister of Petroleum–.
Let’s see the numbers.
Oil production
Oil production for the period 2020-2022 had a sharp drop in June 2020. It plummeted 420,000 barrels/day compared to January of that year, according to secondary sources from the OPEC.
A fundamental cause was that the administration Trump sanctioned the Swiss-based trading arm of Rosneft in February, causing a mismatch in Venezuelan oil exports and thus production. Consequently, the tank farms had little storage capacity to receive new production.
Once the situation with pirate brokers was sorted out, production began to register small sustained increases until reaching 666,000 barrels/day in December 2022. Of course, the supply of diluents –naphthas, condensates, light crude– by the regime of the ayatollahs made it possible to improve the production of extra-heavy crude oil from the Orinoco oil belt.
oil export
Exports are out of statistical control. The variation stems from the fact that sanctioned Venezuelan crude, being used to maintain a criminal organization in power, is sold on the black market.
The tankers they use to transport the crude have their transponders turned off so that the maritime authorities do not know their trajectory and destination. The owners change their names. They register them in other countries. They paint them with other colors. In addition, they transfer cargo on the high seas to other vessels (STS).
This has made the sale of Venezuelan crude a daily activity, without planning. The assignment of the filling windows of the tankers in the Venezuelan ports by hand for different purposes ranging from “solidarity with Cuba”, payment of the debt with the BDC, China Development Bank-chinese background, until the cancellation to importers –oil price with discounts– of goods that seek the buyer and transport randomly. Everything is justified by US sanctions and the Anti-Blockade Law.
Exports have not changed since 2020. They have been at a daily average of 487,000 barrels.
In an exercise to determine the oil shipments that did not report income (direct payments) to PDVSA – those from Cuba for solidarity between the peoples and those from China for the payment of principal and interest on the oil loan to the BDC-Chinese Fund – these they represented 53% of total exports for the period 2020-2022, 22,976 million dollars.
In other words, Cuba received oil shipments equivalent to approximately 2,705 million dollars. And China collected 9,331 million dollars with crude oil, of which 4,672 million dollars were for debt service and the surplus to the PDVSA account at the CDB.
The premise for the calculations is: shipments to Cuba and China (BDC) according to TankerTrackers.com; Merey barrel price average year according to OPEC; remaining export volume has a discount of 20% in 2020, 30% in 2021 and 40% in 2022.
The difference with the total amount of the audit ordered by Tellechea is 9%, which for the purpose of the work is acceptable from the engineering point of view.
Currency to BCV
During the administration of Asdrúbal Chávez, PDVSA gave the Central Bank of Venezuela 4.5 billion dollars, equivalent to 19% of total income.
Others
If we take into account that 3,000 million dollars equivalent in crude oil sales were to fund the petro cryptocurrency, according to the media Úlatest newsthere remain 3,500 million dollars (15%) without information.
However, the president of the company, Asdrúbal Chávez; the Minister for the Economy and Finance, Delcy Rodríguez; and the de facto president of Venezuela know all the details of the movements of the ships in PDVSA. And of course the Minister of Oil, Tareck el Aissami, with his criminal network.
According to Rafael RamirezAmong those who had tankers are Alex Saab and Álvaro Pulido, who have managed the business of importing food known as CLAP boxes.
Conclusion
The narrative of the Maduro regime that it is “giving birth” because it does not have foreign currency to pay for the salary increase or the preparation of the Armed Forces for the embezzlement of PDVSA “that they have just verified” is then a vile lie.
It doesn’t have because the kleptocracy has plundered Venezuela for two decades. The oil industry does not give for more. It does not have and will not have enough income from oil exports to hold the country hostage. It is time to end the network of corrupt criminals and recover what they have left us as a nation.
Let no one deceive you.