CARACAS (Dispatches) –
Venezuela will contract with an Iranian shipyard to build two oil tankers under an existing construction agreement according to people familiar with the matter and documents.
Venezuela’s state-run energy firm PDVSA since last year has redoubled efforts to buy and lease oil tankers to rebuild its own fleet, Reuters reported.
Its maritime operations have suffered from a long-standing lack of capital and U.S. sanctions that have made it difficult to obtain insurance and receive classifications essential to navigate in international waters.
The two new Aframax tankers, to be named India Urquia and India Mara, will cost 31.66 million euros ($33.77 million) each, an internal PDVSA document detailing the proposed agreement showed.
The vessels will be built by Iran Marine Industrial Company (SADRA) at its Bushehr shipyard, which built two previous vessels for PDVSA, the Aframaxes Arita and Anita, that can each carry 500,000-800,000 barrels of oil.
“(Construction of) the India Urquia must start soon,” one of the sources said.
The agreement will come after Venezuela settled an outstanding debt to Iran with fuel, according to the document, one of the reasons why the contract has not worked as originally planned.
PDVSA in late 2021 delivered a 644,000-barrel fuel oil cargo to Iran valued at 33.9 million euros.