委内瑞拉购买4.4亿美元石油送古巴寻求其外交支持

Venezuela Buys Oil for Cuba as Venezuelans Suffer

Venezuela’s state-operated oil company reportedly has bought nearly $440 million worth of foreign crude oil and shipped it directly to Cuba.

The Reuters news agency says this information comes from company documents. It said the Venezuelan business, PDVSA, purchased the oil on friendly credit terms and often at a loss.

The shipments are said to be the first documented example of Venezuela buying oil for its nearby allies. Usually, the country sells them oil from its own supply.

For years, Venezuela has been a major oil exporter and member of OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum¹ Exporting Countries.

Now the country needs money from overseas to help its collapsing² economy and to fight widespread shortages of food and medicine.

The oil purchases point to Venezuela’s increasing isolation³ in the international community and the weakness of its energy industry under President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro is seeking re-election in a vote on Sunday.

Falling production, shrinking imports

The purchases came as Venezuela’s crude production hit a 33-year low during the first three months of 2018. Its production is down 28 percent over the past 12 months. Its oil processing centers are operating at one third of their usual rate, and its workers are resigning from their jobs by the thousands.

Reuters reports that PDVSA bought the crude oil for up to $12 per barrel more than the price for the same oil when it was shipped to Cuba. But Venezuela may never receive payments for the shipments. The country has long accepted goods and services from Cuba in exchange for oil under an agreement signed in 2000.

PDVSA, the Venezuelan government and the Cuban government did not answer Reuters’ requests for comment.

In the past, Venezuela’s government has said it only imports oil to mix with its own oil to improve quality and create an exportable product. The government has also purchased foreign oil to feed its processing center in Curacao.

But hundreds of PDVSA documents examined by Reuters show the company is now buying oil at market prices for its allies. The documents show that the oil never passed through Venezuela.

Diplomats⁴, politicians and PDVSA officials say the shipments are aimed at keeping political support from Cuba. Cuba is one of a shrinking number of Venezuelan allies.

A former top Venezuelan government official said, “Maduro is giving away everything he can because these countries’ backing, especially from Cuba, is all the political support he has left.”

The former official did not want to be identified in the Reuters story.

Venezuela’s government has come under increasing international pressure. The United States, the European Union and Canada have all announced sanctions against Venezuela for what they see as Maduro’s attempts at dictatorship.

As Venezuela spends on oil imports, it has imported less of everything else its citizens need. Venezuela’s spending on non-oil imports dropped from nearly $46 billion in 2011 to $6 billion in 2017. These numbers come from Venezuela’s Central Bank and Ecoanalitica, an economic research organization.

The documents show that PDVSA bought the crude oil for Cuba from Chinese, Russian and Swiss businesses. But the Venezuelan company did not make payments. Instead, PDVSA promised that it would provide other oil shipments at a later time.

That adds to Venezuela’s debts of oil to state-owned companies in Russia and China. In total, Venezuela’s government has more than $60 billion in oil-for-loan deals.

Oil diplomacy⁵

Venezuela’s socialist⁶ government has long used oil for political purposes, taking the money earned from oil sales to lower costs for goods and services at home. The government has won friends across Latin America by providing oil on generous terms.

Venezuela’s oil supply agreements have helped ease international political criticism of Maduro’s government.

Last year, the Organization of American States (OAS) considered a proposal aimed at pressuring Venezuela to hold free elections, free political prisoners and declare a humanitarian⁷ crisis.

But the effort was defeated when 12 OAS members opposed the plan or refused to vote. That represents about one third of the group’s membership. All 12 countries have imported oil from Venezuela in recent years. Eventually, the OAS passed another proposal urging free and fair elections.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

sanction – n. a measure or action aimed at forcing a country to obey international rules or laws

generous – adj. unselfish; kind-hearted; liberal

barrel – n. a large container used as a form of measurement

isolation – n. the action of separating someone or something from other things

crude – adj. unprocessed; untreated

1 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

2 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

3 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

4 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

6 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。