Venezuela to Ship Oil to Cuba on Blacklisted Supertanker

By Marianna Parraga Reuters March 13, 2023

March 13 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA on Monday was loading a supertanker with crude and fuel for Cuba, maritime documents showed, an unusually large volume to help its political ally overcome an energy crisis with repeated blackouts.

Several big electrical outages this year have left many in Cuba concerned about power supplies this summer, when residents crank up air conditioning to stay cool in the Caribbean heat.

Cuban officials have blamed the intermittent power on difficulties processing heavy sour Cuban crude and fuel shortages on the island, which depends heavily on imports from Venezuela, for hobbling power generation.

A large fire last year destroyed a portion of the country’s largest oil terminal, Matanzas, and has created obstacles to discharge fuel imports.

The Panama-flagged supertanker Nolan this week is loading 400,000 barrels of fuel oil for power generation at Venezuela’s Jose terminal. It also will load 1.13 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy oil, bringing the total cargo to 1.53 million barrels, according to internal PDVSA shipping documents. The vessel is due to sail later this month.

Cuba has very limited capacity to receive large tankers, especially since the Matanzas fire. The Nolan is bound for Matanzas, one of the documents showed, where Cuban state companies have been discharging imports by transferring cargoes to smaller vessels through ship-to-ship operations.

Seeking to avoid its own fuel crisis, Venezuela’s oil supplies to Cuba last year fell about 6% to 53,600 barrels per day (bpd), independent data based on tanker movement showed.

Nolan, owned by Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd, was blacklisted in November by the U.S. Treasury Department under accusations of being part of an international oil smuggling network that facilitated oil trades for Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force.

PDVSA, Venezuela’s oil ministry and Cuba’s Center for International Press did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Thomarose Global Ventures could not be reached for comment.

The tanker has not sent a signal from its transponder since mid-December while in Venezuela, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel monitoring data.

https://gcaptain.com/venezuela-to-ship-oil-to-cuba-on-blacklisted-supertanker/

[AIS report 3/07/23 vessel departed Lanshan, China on 4/03/23 destination Luanda, Angola, ETA 3/10/2023. Vicintiy West Africa, but we've seen these spoofed before]

>>18503133 (me)

Any tanker tracks near the Jose Terminal in Venezuela are all satellite so unable to determine if tanker NOLAN is there

>>18503196

Vesselfinder is not as good as it used to

myshiptracking gets weird sometimes too, screen shot holds ancient dates, destination Angola after leaving Dubai, but sitting in Venezuelan waters. he kind of ghost tanker games played way back during Apartheid

>>18503502

It's about the subs

Biden to Reveal Submarine Pact with Australia and Britain to Counter China

By David Brunnstrom Reuters March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will meet leaders of Australia and Britain in San Diego on Monday to announce a way forward for Australia to receive nuclear-powered submarines in Canberra’s biggest-ever defense project.

The three countries announced the so-called AUKUS plan in 2021 as part of efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region.

However, questions remain over strict U.S. curbs on the extensive technology sharing needed for the project and about the length of time it will take to deliver the submarines.

Australia is expected to buy up to five U.S. Virginia class nuclear-poweredsubmarines in the 2030s as part of the landmark agreement to be revealed in detail by Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, four U.S. officials told Reuters this week.

The agreement would have multiple stages with at least one U.S. submarine visiting Australian ports in the coming years and end in the late 2030s with a new class of submarines built with British designs and American technology, one of the officials said.

Two of the officials said that after the annual port visits, the United States would forward deploy some submarines in Western Australia by around 2027.

In the early 2030s, Australia would buy three Virginia class submarines and have the option to buy two more.

China has condemned the effort by the Western allies, who are seeking to counter its military buildup, pressure on Taiwan and increasingly muscular deployments in the contested South China Sea.

SHARING SENSITIVE TECHNOLOGY

The officials did not elaborate on the planned new class of submarines, including where they would be built, but Australia’s ambassador to Washington said last week there would be a “genuine trilateral solution” and the plan offers the prospect of jobs in all three countries.

Under the initial AUKUS deal announced in 2021, the United States and Britain agreed to provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.

It will be the first time the United States has shared nuclear-propulsion technology since it did so with Britain in the 1950s. Currently no party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty other than the five countries the NPT recognizes as weapons states – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – has nuclearsubmarines.

In a second stage of the AUKUS project, the three countries will share advanced technology such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons. British and Australian officials said last week there was still work needed to break down bureaucratic barriers to such technology sharing.

Bill Greenwalt, a former senior Pentagon official for industrial policy, said that since it will be years before the Australia has new submarines, the partners urgently need to move forward with this second stage, which covers capabilities that could be deployed within the next few years and are needed quickly given the growing threat posed by China.

“Undersea drones, swarming drones, ubiquitous surveillance, advanced AI and data analytics are all in this potential wheelhouse but ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) prevents the types of cooperation that is needed,” said Greenwalt, referring to U.S. export rules.

A State Department spokesperson said the United States was working to streamline the defense trade process, adding: “We do not anticipate any challenges in implementing AUKUS due to U.S. export-control regulations.”

AUSTRALIAN WORKERS TO THE U.S

The U.S. Congress has been briefed in recent weeks on the AUKUS deal to garner support for the legal changes needed to smooth out technology transfer issues for the highly secret nuclear propulsion and sonar systems that will be aboard Australia’s new submarines, a congressional source said on condition of anonymity.

Over the next five years, Australian workers will come to U.S. submarine shipyards to observe and train, the source said, adding that this could help ease a shortfall of U.S. shipyard workers.

It is unclear how AUKUS might affect the U.S. Navy’s own submarine acquisitions. General Dynamics Corp GD.N, which makes Virginia class submarines, has 17 of them in its current backlog delivering through 2032.

Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday the submarines would ensure peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

“It is difficult to overstate the step that as a nation we are about to take,” said Marles. “We have never operated a military capability at this level before.”

Justin Burke, a visiting fellow at Australia’s Lowy Institute think tank, said the aim was for a straightforward and cost-effective plan to supply submarines and starting with an existing design like the Virginia Class was “a very plausible way forward.”

“There are always considerable challenges in designing submarines from scratch, especially if you are combining technology from different nations and potentially manufacturing across multiple locations. Acquiring several submarines up front would mitigate those risks considerably,” he said.

https://gcaptain.com/biden-to-reveal-submarine-pact-with-australia-and-britain-to-counter-china/

The UN is crowdfunding now? I wonder where most of the money will go…

UN Re-Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for FSO Safer Oil Removal Operation

Mike Schuler March 10, 2023

With yesterday’s news that the United Nations has secured the purchase of an oil tanker to receive oil from the decaying FSO Safer in the Red Sea, the UN is re-launching a crowdfunding campaign to fill budget gaps to complete the safe removal of oil from the vessel.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday announced an agreement with Belgian tanker company Euronav to purchase a Very Large Crude Carrier as part of the UN-led operation to transfer over a million barrels of oil from the floating storage and offloading vessel.

The replacement vessel is now in drydock for modifications and regular maintenance before setting sail to the FSO Safer, which is moored approximately nine kilometers off Yemen’s Ras Isa peninsula. The operation is scheduled to kick off in early May.

“The purchase of this suitable vessel by UNDP marks the beginning of the operational phase of the UN-coordinated plan to safely remove the oil from the Safer and avoid the risk of an environmental and humanitarian disaster on a massive scale,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

Due to the conflict in Yemen, the FSO Safer has not been maintained since 2015 and its condition has deteriorated to the point that there is an imminent risk that it could explode or break apart.

The tanker holds 1.1 million barrels of oil, which is approximately four times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez and enough to create the fifth largest oil spill from a tanker in history if the entire amount is released. Such a spill could devastate fishing communities on Yemen’s Red Sea coast and cause highly polluted air that would affect millions of people.

Additionally, shipping through the Bab al-Mandab strait to the Suez Canal could be disrupted, leading to billions of dollars in global trade losses every day, similar to when the Ever Given grounded in the Canal in 2021. The ports of Hodeidah and Saleef, which are essential for bringing food, fuel, and life-saving supplies into Yemen, could also be closed due to the spill, affecting 17 million people in need of food assistance. A spill could also lead to the closure of desalination plants, cutting off a water source for millions of people. Oil from the Safer could reach the African coast, causing severe environmental impact on coral reefs, life-supporting mangroves, and other marine life.

The UNDP, which is implementing the operation as part of the UN-led initiative, has contracted marine salvage company SMIT to safely remove the oil and prepare the Safer for towing to a scrapping yard.

“We must accept that this is a very challenging and complex operation. UNDP is working around the clock with experts from UN sister agencies including IMO, WFP and UNEP among others as well as international consultancies on maritime law, insurance and environmental impact to ensure that we are deploying the best possible expertise to successfully complete this operation,” added Steiner.

Although the project has received significant international support, high demand for suitable vessels to undertake the operation and spiraling costs attributed to the war in Ukraine means more funds are still required to complete the emergency phase of the plan.

To help bridge the gap, the UN is re-launching a crowdfunding campaign to fill the $34 million budget gap so the operation can begin in the first half of this year as planned. As of March 7, 2023, the UN has raised $95 million, of which $75 million has been received, of the total $129 million cost of the emergency phase of the project.

“UNDP’s purchase of the vessel is indeed a major step, made possible by the generosity of donors, the private sector and global citizens. The parties to the conflict continue to endorse the plan. Now we are into the operational phase and hopeful the oil will be removed from the Safer within the next three to four months. But we still urgently need funding to implement the plan and prevent disaster,” said Sana’a, David Gressly, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, who has led on UN system-wide efforts on the Safer since September 2021.

https://gcaptain.com/un-re-launches-crowdfunding-campaign-for-fso-safer-oil-removal-operation/

>>18503736

>Across the water in the distance was the USS Sterett, a missile destroyer where hundreds of impeccably dressed sailors stood attentively, listening to the leaders’ every word.

I'm dyin! Author could tell in the distance they were impeccably dressed, and listening? Kek to maximum. No they were ordered to stand there, could barely hear anything, were talking amongst themselves, and cared less what the Brit said, that's Atlantic Fleet's problem