Venezuela's
PDVSA Halts 2 Oil Shipments to Costa Rica
By Jeremy Morgan, Latin American Herald
Tribune
The state oil corporation, Petróleos de
Venezuela (PDVSA), is said to have abruptly
cancelled two shipments of crude oil, each
of 280,000 barrels of light oil, to a
refinery in Costa Rica.
The refinery was then obliged to resort to
the spot market, where it said it intended
to seek alternative supplies.
A Caracas-based website, Petrofinanzas,
reported that the shipments were contracted
for delivery in August and September. The
reason why PDVSA cancelled them in a thin
market of reduced demand worldwide wasn’t
clear.
The absence of an explanation from PDVSA –
or, indeed, any public comment about the
report prompted speculation that the
decision was perhaps politically motivated.
It was noted, for instance, that Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez recently lambasted
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias for his
role in efforts to resolve the ongoing
crisis in Honduras.
Chávez claimed that Arias – a Nobel Peace
Prize winner – was merely following orders
from the State Department in Washington in
his unsuccessful effort to get the
protagonists in the Honduran crisis to meet
and talk. Chávez claimed that Arias’ action
was “undignified” of a Latin American
president.
Chávez, in turn, is accused of interfering
in the Honduran crisis by siding with ousted
elected President Manuel Zelaya, after
initially being reported to have talked in
unspecific terms of military action. Later,
he clarified that he had no intention of
intervening in the internal affairs of a
sovereign state.. |
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