No Sleep, Frantic Calls: Maduro’s Oil Team Scrambles to Survive U.S. Ban
- Employees are working around the clock to redirect oil output
- Venezuelan crude -- 8 million barrels -- is idling in the Gulf
An oil storage tank stands at the PDVSA El Tigre facility in Venezuela.
Photographer: Bloomberg
At Venezuela’s state oil company, desperation and chaos are setting in one week after the U.S. imposed a de facto ban on the country’s crude products.
Working around the clock, employees are calling dozens of traders, some little known, in a search for new markets for its crude, according to people describing the atmosphere at Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Some are barely sleeping. One meeting to find new partners started at 11 p.m., one person said. PDVSA employees are also working furiously to entice vendors to sell them refined products such as naphtha that are critical to keeping its ailing industry working. As the supply of those products falls under the sanctions, early signs of a gasoline shortage have surfaced in the countryside.