Iran has continued supply of food to Venezuelaby sending another cargo ship to the Latin American nation despite harsh US sanctions against the two countries.
The vessel tracking data from analyst Refinitiv Eikon, as cited by Reuters, said the Iranian-flagged general cargo ship Golsan has berthed at La Guaira after it left Iran in late November.
Also in July 2020, the Golsan brought food to supply Venezuela’s first Iranian supermarket and later returned home carrying a cargo of alumina, a powder refined from bauxite that is used for manufacturing aluminum.
Venezuela is grappling with shortages of gasoline due to sanctions unilaterally imposed by the United States not only on Caracas but also on Iran.
Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. The country’s refineries can produce more than 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel, but they are working at less than 20% of their capacity mainly due to power outages and lack of spare parts amid the US sanctions.
Iran has already sent several tankers loaded with barrels of gasoline and alkylate to Venezuela to help jump start the oil refineries there amid a fuel crisis.
The fuel shipments to Venezuela’s ports and refineries drew the ire of the US administration in Washington, which had previously threatened to prevent new oil tankers leaving Iran from reaching the Venezuelan coast.
Iran has warned of retaliatory measures against the United States should Washington cause problems for tankers carrying Iranian fuel to gasoline-starved Venezuela.
Moreover, the two OPEC-member countries have deepened their cooperation over the past year, exchanging gold and other commodities for food, condensate and fuel as the US sanctions do not allow them to use the dollar-dominated financial system.