OREANDA-NEWS  The Ligera supertanker, carrying a shipment of Russian Urals grade oil with a volume of 1.7 million barrels, approached the shores of Venezuela, indicating the first delivery to the South American country in at least the last five years. Bloomberg writes about this with reference to the data of the vessel tracking system.

Previously, Venezuela, the country with the largest proven oil reserves, bought foreign oil to dilute its own and further export. Due to US sanctions, this procedure complicates identification and simplifies sales.

Nevertheless, the newspaper notes, there is no exact information why Venezuela needs Russian oil. Separately, the author of the material indicates that the shipment arrived in South America at a time when the situation in the Red Sea violates the usual trade routes, respectively, the supply of Russian oil from the Baltic and Black Seas to India and China has become more complicated.

In the past, Russia sent its oil to Cuba, but it was in recent years that supplies were low. In 2022, the island received six tankers, in 2023 - only two. The current tanker assembled the shipment by transshipment from ship to ship off the coast of Greece.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that in 2023, Russia increased oil supplies to friendly countries, primarily India and China, to 86 percent, and petroleum products to 84 percent.

It was also reported that in January 2024, oil refining in Russia fell to 747.9 thousand tons per day, decreasing by almost 4 percent year-on-year, due to problems with several plants.