Venezuela’s Ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, today, dismissed as “fake news” media reports that the South American country’s state-owned oil and natural gas company, PDVSA will be suspending petroleum deliveries to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and seven other Caribbean countries under its Petrocaribe agreement.
According to reports, the Venezuelan Oil Ministry said on Tuesday this week that PDVSA, is indefinitely suspending refined product deliveries to eight of the 17 countries that are covered under the agreement, namely- Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts Nevis.
It was reported that the decision is primarily due to falling crude production and low refinery utilization.
But speaking on radio here on WEFM this morning, Ambassador Francisco M. Perez Santana, described the reports as fake.
Ambassador Santana ratified what he said was a pledge made by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro after being reelected as President in May that Venezuela will keep it policy to provide fuel to its allies in the Caribbean.
He noted that as a consequence of the financial and economic blockade imposed by the US Government on Venezuela, challenges are being experienced in relation to paying and receiving payments for fuel supplied by PDVSA, which has resulted in some delays in the fuel shipment.
However, the Ambassador made it clear that Venezuela will not be suspending the PetroCaribe agreement.
He said there has been no official notification from Venezuela’s government or PDVSA on the matter.
“In any case we are not going to suspend our agreement-the PetroCaribe agreement. Nobody said that, there are no statements about that…so I deny categorically that that will happen,” said Ambassador Santana.
