Venezuela's PDVSA suspends most oil export contracts, Reuters reports

The new head of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, Pedro Rafael Tellechea, has suspended most export contracts while they are reviewed, in a bid to avoid payment defaults, Reuters reported on 17 January, citing an internal document and people familiar with the matter. Since US sanctions were imposed in 2019, PDVSA has increasingly sold oil through little-known middlemen, many of which Washington has identified as shell companies. The freeze has left most berths at the main Jose terminal empty, with more than a dozen vessels waiting at anchor, and ship-to-ship transfers at other terminals have been interrupted. Cargoes chartered by Chevron and Cuba's Cubametales are not affected.

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