The regime of Nicolás Maduro seeks to transfer its oil from the United States to Russia or other countries

Venezuelan Oil Minister and chairman of the oil company PDVSA, Manuel Quevedo, said on Monday that the Nicolás Maduro regime could divert Russia and other countries from oil originally destined for the United States.

The Chavez leader said that Caracas would decide where he would send his oil and that Its main objective is to strengthen ties with Russia, a country with which it has committed to respect the oil supply contracts.

"We are going forward, we are strengthening more and more this relationship, we will open a PDVSA office in Moscow," the minister said.

"The contracts are being filled," he said. "We can send to Russia or to other customers the oil that has been allocated to the United States," he said.

At a meeting in Baku, with his peers from OPEC and some producers outside the cartel, Mr. Quevedo also said that the generator of Venezuela's main oil terminal, José, operates after the mbadive power outage that stopped crude exports last week.

Much of Venezuela, including part of the capital Caracas, was deprived of electricity for several days, which complicated the efforts of the population to obtain water and food.

"At the moment, (Jose) is working fully"Quevedo told reporters through an interpreter."He suffered a lot from the power outage (…) The Venezuelan oil industry has suffered a lothe admitted.

The United States has imposed severe sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry this year with the aim of reducing President Nicolás Maduro's main source of revenue. In this sense, it has already succeeded in stopping a large part of business purchases in India, which had proved to be the ideal candidate for easing international pressure.

The Indian conglomerate Reliance Ltd., one of the largest refineries in the world and one of the largest oil importers in Venezuela, confirmed this week the total disruption of its activities with this country through its subsidiary in the United States. And denied any intention of consumer demand with the Caribbean nation.

(With information from Reuters, EFE and AFP)