Effect of sanctions: Venezuela has more than 500 million USD barrels of oil on ships in search of buyers

The US sanctions against the national oil company Petroleo de Venezuela (PDVSA) dealt a very hard blow to Nicolás Maduro's regime, which was his main source of financing. To date, Venezuela has over 500 million barrels of crude oil on ships that are on the coast of the country, waiting for buyers.

according to Bloomberg, quoted by the portal The wealth, in the coastal zone 16 ships carrying cargoes owned by PDVSA, Chevron Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Rosneft Oil Co PJSC.

Sources familiar with the situation revealed that companies such as Rosneft, Chevron, Total SA and Equinor SA were operating at lower rates since they've been left without space to store the crude.

Many refineries and trading companies depend on the US financial system to carry out their activities. This is done PDVSA has big problems finding buyers, apart from countries like India and China.

However, Venezuela provides them with barrels of crude oil to repay their past loans.

Petromonagas (PDVSA-Rosneft joint venture) no longer processes oil after running out of space to store its production. For the same reason, Petropiar (PDVSA-Chevron) was forced to reduce production.

PetroCedeño (PDVSA-Total-Equinor), meanwhile, is running out of oil to process.

Officers of the Houston-based firm set a deadline of February 26 to end business relations with PDVSA, after the sanctions imposed by the government of Donald Trump to block the access of dictator Nicolás Maduro to the oil revenues of the nation and support a transitional government formed by the leader of the opposition and Juan Guaidó.