News

A Tanker Owned by Venezuela’s State Oil Company was One of Three Vessels Detained Last Week for Suspected Smuggling of Fuel

Source: Trade Winds News

September 14th 2015

The 47,144-dwt Negra Hipolita (built 1996) was found with an excess load of 50,000 barrels of diesel at the Cardon refinery, Reuters reports. Negra Hipolita belongs to Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

According to Reuters, seven people were arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle fuel on the PDVSA tanker.

Two more vessels were involved in suspected smuggling of subsidized fuel in Venezuela.

The 50,747-dwt Marios G (built 2010), chartered by PDVSA, was detained due to an excess of 1,018 barrels of fuel worth over $186,000.

According to Clarksons, the vessel belongs to Piraeus-based Opera SA.

Reuters also reports that a vessel named Paola Valentina was found carrying 4,000 litres of gasoil without the correct invoices.

Nine people have been detained in total over the three vessel detentions.