PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, has settled in a US court with Sinopec, its Chinese counterpart, less than a week after a five-year-old dispute became public.It brings a rapid end to a drawn-out battle that shadowed a gradual souring in relations between the world’s biggest emerging economy and the holder of the world’s biggest proven oil reserves.In a document filed on Tuesday in a US district court in Houston, Texas, PDVSA said that, “without implying acknowledgment of fault or responsibility but for the sole purpose of ending the controversy [between Sinopec USA and PDVSA]”, it agreed to pay Sinopec $21.5m, settling a contract agreed in May 2012.However, the agreement stipulates that the amount be converted into Chinese renminbi and paid in two instalments, one on December 14 and another on January 15, 2018.“That’s how cash poor and badly run PDVSA is,” said Russ Dallen of boutique investment bank Caracas Capital, who first made the dispute public. “They are sitting on top of the biggest oil reserves in the world and they can’t even write a cheque for $21.5m dollars.”He said worldwide publicity about the case over the past week had piled shame on PDVSA and the government in Caracas, “and they wanted it to go away as quickly as possible.”The dispute centred on a $43.5m contract for supply of steel rebar, of which Sinopec said only half had been paid. It accused PDVSA of engaging in “intentional misrepresentations, deceit, and concealment of material facts” involving “wilful deception” and a co-ordinated conspiracy among several of its subsidiaries.Sinopec, one of the biggest Chinese state oil companies, became involved in Venezuela as part of a package of Chinese loans and investments adding up to more than $62bn between 2007 and 2016. Caracas has struggled to repay its debts as the oil price has fallen from its 2014 peak and as production at PDVSA has dwindled.PDVSA and the government in Caracas have been declared in default multiple times by rating agencies since the middle of last month after they began missing payments on their international bonds.Both PDVSA and the government are also in multiple disputes with oil companies, miners and others over expropriation of assets and non-payment of bills.The government has been printing bolívares to cover a widening budget deficit, sending the currency into freefall on the parallel market and monthly inflation high into double digits.President Nicolás Maduro has taken the country deeper into dictatorship as discontent rises at shortages of basic foods and medicines that have caused a humanitarian crisis.
La parte piu' interessante della notizia, a mio parere, sta nel fatto che una SOE (impresa di Stato) cinese e' andata al tribunale USA a reclamare circa la controversia con PDVsa.. e ha ottenuto il pagamento richiesto.
il montante reclamato in se e' una quisquilia.
Sembra un indizio evidente che il governo cinese ha interesse a ricevere petrolio venezolano.. ma non a mettersi in conflitto con gli Americani in dispute venezuelane.
Anche significativo il fatto che i cinesi, prima di concedere nuovi prestiti, hanno voluto certificare di non andare contro le prerogative costituzionali del parlamento venezolano.
