Due to the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry and state firm PDVSA, one of the world’s largest commodity traders, Trafigura, has decided to halt its oil trade with Venezuela, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting a source with direct knowledge of the plans. Trafigura walking out of oil trading with Venezuela would be a harsh blow to PDVSA, which has been working with Trafigura and other trading houses to sell crude oil and to import refined oil products. In 2018, Trafigura directly lifted 34,000 bpd of crude oil and products from Venezuela, most of which it resold to refineries in the U.S. and China, according to internal documents of PDVSA which Reuters has seen. The U.S. sanctions now block all payments to PDVSA accounts, and buyers of Venezuelan crude are directed to deposit payments in a separate escrow account, to which PDVSA and the regime of Nicolas Maduro doesn’t […]