Traders are shipping Venezuelan oil to Israel for the first time in years as the Latin American country's exports open up following the capture of its president Nicolas Maduro.
The oil is being transported to Bazan Group, the Mediterranean country's top crude processor, people with knowledge of the deal said, asking not to be identified because the information isn't public.
The Trump administration said it would take over Venezuela's oil sales indefinitely after the capture of Maduro at the start of the year and tapped traders to handle the initial sales.
Venezuelan Information Minister Miguel Pérez Pirela said the country works with commodities traders for the sale of its crude and is not responsible for where or who the oil is sold to, and in this case, it did not sell barrels directly to Israel. In a post on X, he said the report of Venezuela sending oil to Israel was “FAKE!”
Israel doesn't advertise where it gets its crude oil from, and tankers have sometimes disappeared from digital tracking systems once they near the country's ports.
When the cargo arrives, it would mark the first shipment of its kind since mid-2020, when Israel took about 470,000 barrels, according to Kpler data. Bazan, also known as Oil Refineries Ltd, declined to comment. Israel's energy ministry declined to comment on where the country gets its crude from.
The deal is the latest sign of how the removal of Venezuelan president Maduro from office is routing flows of the country's oil. Until then, much of the country's output was sold in China. In the last month cargoes have been sold to buyers in India, Spain, the US and now Israel.
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