How Chinese Refiners Are Skirting Venezuela Oil Sanctions

Oil traders are mixing additives into Venezuelan crude to disguise its origin so they can sell it to Chinese refiners without either party getting stung by U.S. penalties for sanction violation, Bloomberg has reported. The “doping” takes place at a mid-point between Venezuela and China, the report notes, and the name of the crude is changed in official documents to ones that would not suggest where the cargo comes from. According to Bloomberg, millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil have reached Chinese refiners this way. This is on top…