With President of Venezuela Nicolas Madur
(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday pledged funds
for a state-owned Argentine shipyard to finish building two long-
overdue tankers for state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela[PDVSA.UL],
which is struggling with a diminished tanker fleet.
Maduro, a socialist who has overseen a drastic economic collapse in
the once-prosperous OPEC nation and stands accused of corruption and
human rights violations, did not say how much money Venezuela would
provide or when it would be disbursed.
But the statement
suggests he sees left-leaning Alberto Fernandez’ victory in last month’s
Argentine presidential election as an opening to revive the
construction. He accused current President Mauricio Macri, an outspoken
Maduro critic, of “sabotage” to delay the tankers’ completion, without
evidence.
“Macri, who hates us and fears us at the same time,
stopped everything,” Maduro told a gathering of leftist organizations in
Cuba. “There’s a new president. I’ll tell you: Venezuela has the
resources and is ready to invest and finish those two ships.”
Maduro added that he had not been aware of the situation until union
leaders from the Rio Santiago shipyard building the tankers - who also
attended the Havana summit - approached him in a restaurant this
weekend.
Representatives for Macri and Fernandez did not
immediately respond to requests for comment. Maria Eugenia Vidal, a
close Macri ally and outgoing governor of Buenos Aires province, which
owns the shipyard, has said she would rather spend money on schools than
subsidize it.
Fernandez is set to be inaugurated next month.
Delivery
of the ships was delayed long before Macri took office in late 2015.
Maduro’s late predecessor Hugo Chavez and late Argentine President
Nestor Kirchner first signed a pact to build them in 2005.
One
tanker, the medium-sized Eva Peron Aframax, was officially launched in
2012, but construction delays and a lack of funds have meant neither has
yet been delivered.
PDVSA, hit by a freefall in its crude output
and U.S. sanctions intended to force out Maduro, is in desperate need
of new tankers, after losing control of part of its fleet due to
mounting unpaid bills to operators.
Many shipping firms are no
longer calling at Venezuela’s ports or carrying its oil due to
sanctions, say maritime sources, leading to a scarcity of tankers for
exports and a consequent accumulation of unsold oil stocks, which has
forced PDVSA to further cut back output.
Reporting by Luc Cohen; additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires; editing by Richard Pullin
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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