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Iranian Ships Bring Gasoline to Fuel-Thirsty Venezuela

Iranian Ships Bring Gasoline to Fuel-Thirsty Venezuela
Iranian Ships Bring Gasoline to Fuel-Thirsty Venezuela

An Iranian tanker carrying gasoline has arrived over the weekend in Venezuelan territorial waters as the country deals with severe fuel shortages and US sanctions.
The clean tanker Fortune -- laden with 30,000 tons of gasoline -- was north of the Venezuelan port of Puerto La Cruz as of Sunday morning, data from Platts trade flow tool cFlow showed.
The Iranian Embassy said late Saturday in a tweet that one of its tankers arrived in Venezuelan waters escorted by the country's navy. This was also confirmed in a tweet by Venezuela's new Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami.
The shipment comes amid rising political tensions between the US and the two OPEC members. US sanctions against both Iran and Venezuela have had a severe impact on their oil sectors. 
The tankers Faxon, Fortune, Petunia, Clavel and Forest are carrying a total of roughly 210,000 tons of gasoline, according to cFlow. These shipments combined amount to almost 1.5 million barrels of gasoline.
Petunia and Forest are expected to arrive in the next couple of days, cFlow data shows.
Venezuela is facing persistent gasoline shortages due to the deterioration of its refining sector. The situation has been worsened by heavy fuel rationing in the midst of a Coronavirus quarantine since March.
Gasoline demand in Iran has fallen heavily in the past few months due to the pandemic and these shipments will help offset some of the slump.

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