MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pledged to begin charging citizens for gasoline, as the fourth cargo of a five-tanker flotilla bringing fuel from Iran approached the South American nation’s exclusive economic zone, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Iran is providing the country with up to 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and components to help it ease an acute scarcity that has forced Venezuelans to wait in hours-long lines at service stations or pay steep prices on the black market.
With the arrival of the gasoline, Maduro said he would end the policy of providing fuel effectively for free after more than two decades of frozen pump prices. He provided no details. "Gasoline must be paid for,” Maduro said in a state television address, saying that the price increase would be part of a “normalization and regularization plan."
"I have Venezuela’s support and understanding,” Maduro said, blaming the shortages on the United States, which sanctioned state oil company PDVSA last year as part of a push to oust Maduro, whom the U.S. accuses of having rigged elections in 2018. Service stations have begun testing new payment systems, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
In recent weeks, more than 100 service stations across the country have received new equipment that would allow them to charge for gasoline and ration retail sales, though their operators have not yet received clear instructions from the government or PDVSA, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Maduro in 2018 had pledged to increase prices at the pump, but never went through with the plan. Ending fuel subsidies is seen as politically risky in Venezuela, where a 1989 effort to raise gasoline and transportation prices contributed to a deadly wave of riots and looting.
As it was said earlier, Rosneft, Russia’s largest state-owned oil company, announces the cessation of operations in Venezuela and the sale of assets related to activities in this country due to US sanctions. As a result of the execution of the agreement and the sale of assets, Rosneft will receive a 9.6% stake in its one of its 100% subsidiaries.The Russian government acquired assets from Venezuela from Rosneft. The owner became a company 100% owned by the Russian Federation.
As MRC informed earlier, Rosneft produces at its facilities and sells ethyl alcohol and acetone in Russia, which are used in the manufacture of antiseptics. 15 thousand tons of these substances are produced per month. On the day the quarterly report was published, Rosneft told how its work has changed in the context of the coronavirus epidemic.
Acetone, along with phenol, is the main raw material component for the production of bisphenol A (BPA, by condensation), which, in turn, is used to produce polycarbonate (PC).
According to ScanPlast of Market Report, the total estimated consumption of PC granules in the Russian market (excluding imports and exports to Belarus) amounted to 22.7 thousand tons in the first quarter compared to 17 thousand tons for the same period last year. Demand increased by 33%.
MRC