Rosneft sells Venezuelan assets to Russia after U.S. sanctions ramp up

MOSCOW, (Reuters) - Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, said yesterday it had terminated operations in Venezuela and sold the assets linked to its operations in the South American nation to an unnamed company owned by the Russian government.

The impact of the move, announced at a time when oil prices are languishing at around $25 per barrel, on Rosneft’s upstream joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela was not immediately clear.

The U.S. government has ramped up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, including imposing sanctions on two Swiss-based Rosneft units - Rosneft Trading and TNK Trading International - that Washington said provided PDVSA a lifeline by acting as intermediaries for its crude.

The change of ownership announced on Saturday means any future U.S. sanctions on Russiancontrolled oil operations in Venezuela would target the Russian government directly.

Russia, via the state company Rosneftegaz, owns slightly over 50% of Kremlin-controlled Rosneft’s capital. International shareholders include BP, which has 19.75%, and Qatar via QH Oil Investments LLC, which owns another 18.93%.

By withdrawing from Venezuela and passing its assets to an entity owned by Moscow, Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, transfers the risks related to its Venezuelan operations to the Russian government.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiyev told Reuters the decision to terminate operations in Venezuela was meant to protect the company’s shareholders.

“We defended the interests of our shareholders and did it in an effective way,” Leontiyev said. “And to whom the risks go is not an issue for us. The main thing is that the risks are leaving us.”

Rosneft would not disclose the name of the company to which it had sold its Venezuelan operations. A spokesman for the Russian government confirmed it had purchased Rosneft’s operations in Venezuela, but declined to say what company was involved in the deal.

Rosneft Trading and TNK took more than a third of Venezuela’s oil exports in 2019, allowing PDVSA to continue crude shipments even after U.S. sanctions imposed on the company left many traditional customers unwilling to work with it.

MILAN, (Reuters) - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy barrelled past 10,000 yesterday, a figure that made an extension of a national lockdown almost certain.

Officials said 889 more people died in the previous 24 hours, the second highest daily tally since the epidemic emerged on Feb. 21, and that total fatalities reached 10,023.

Confirmed cases rose by about 6,000 to 92,472, the second-highest number of cases in the world behind the United States.

Officials said the numbers would have been worse without a national lockdown.

“Without these measures, we would be seeing far worse numbers and our health service would be in a far more dramatic state. We would have been in an unsustainable situation,” said Angelo Borelli, the Civil Protection head who reads out the numbers daily to the media and an anxious Italy.

Italy, the first Western country to introduce severe restrictions on movement after uncovering the outbreak five weeks ago, has since increasingly tightened them, and hopes that they would be eased from next Friday were fading fast.

PANAMA CITY, (Reuters) - A cruise ship stuck off Panama’s Pacific coast after four passengers died and more than 130 others developed influenza-like symptoms, including at least two with the coronavirus, will be allowed to proceed through the Panama Canal, the government said yesterday.

Holland America Line’s 238-meter (781-foot) MS Zaandam vessel can now continue its trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but Panama’s government underscored that no passengers or crew members would be allowed to set foot on Panamanian soil.

“Panama will guarantee biosecurity measures to protect the personnel who will participate in this maneuver and thus safeguard the health of Panamanians,” the government said in a statement.