The Forest, one of the three Iranian ships loaded with fuel, arrives in Venezuela on the morning of this September 29. Along with Faxon and Fortune tankers, the ships already brought Iranian gasoline to the country last May, while an energy crisis was worsening amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past days, there are violent anti-Maduro protests all over Venezuela triggered by this shortage. And a recent, damning UN report, accusing him of crimes against humanity, is pending ominously over the head of Maduro.
You must read Not even Iranian gasoline can solve the shortage in Venezuela
“The Iranian ships are coming; they have already passed (evaded) the controls and the stalking by the United States, but they forbade us to take pictures of them when they arrive at the dock of the El Palito refinery. We have orders to turn off the cell phones; there are many national guards in the area,” a PDVSA worker told El Pitazo.
Below, we highlight the most recent data on the arrival of the Iranian tankers to Venezuela:
The three vessels loaded with fuel for Venezuela were sent by Iran last September 10, according to a report released by the Tanker Trackers tracking service. The ships, owned and flagged by Iran, are the Forest, the Fortune, and the Faxon, all built-in 2004 and controlled by the National Iranian Tanker Co.
After unloading Iranian products in Venezuela last May and June, the three ships return to the country with a cargo of 825,000 barrels of gasoline, approximately 13,117,500 liters of fuel in total (159 liters per barrel).
The Faxon, which is moving some 100,000 barrels, has kept its tracking system off since it left, and the last time it was tracking, along with the other two tankers, it was near Cape Hope, in southern Africa.
Workers at the El Palito refinery, in the state of Carabobo, informed El Pitazo that the subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) got militarized given the imminent arrival of Iranian ships loaded with gasoline.
“The docks of the El Palito refinery have been militarized since September 25, while waiting for the ships, which will enter the country with the GPS turned off so as not to be detected,” assured a source at the refinery complex.
Tanker Trackers specified that the first tanker to arrive in Venezuela was the Forest, which arrived this morning, while on October 1, will the turn of the Fortune. Then, on October 4, the Faxon.
