A number of oil tankers are refusing to come in and discharge their loads at Venezuelan ports because they don’t trust the country’s state-run oil firm PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela SA) to pay up, according to Reuters.
As the vessels, numbering around a dozen, linger outside ports on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast it has a knock-on effect, delaying around 50 ships with other cargo from doing their business.
PDVSA’s perceived loss of trustworthiness and clear lack of liquidity are symptoms of the mismanagement, corruption and red tape that grew worse under the regime of the late President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has huge oil reserves but its production capacity has been stagnant for five years.
