Russia Is Going To Lose Billions For Backing Venezuela Under Chavez And Now Maduro

DUELLING PARTNERS: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, holds a replica of the sword of Simon Bolivar, a national hero, as Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian oil firm Rosneft, looks on from the left in July 2016. Joint ventures between Rosneft and Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, have not always gone smoothly. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

Reuters: How Russia sank billions of dollars into Venezuelan quicksand

Russian oil company Rosneft spent a fortune on joint ventures in Venezuela even though it suspected it was losing out on millions of dollars, documents show. It continued investing, sources say, because the Kremlin wanted to support its ally in South America.

MOSCOW – At the end of 2015, managers at Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil firm, sounded the alarm to their bosses about the company’s investments in Venezuela. Rosneft’s local partner, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, owed it hundreds of millions of dollars, according to internal documents, and there seemed no prospect things would get better.

“It will be like this for eternity,” a Rosneft internal auditor wrote in an email to a colleague in November 2015, complaining there was no progress in getting PDVSA to explain a $700 million hole in the balance sheet of a joint venture.

The email was among scores of internal Rosneft communications - including presentations, copies of official letters, memos and spreadsheets – reviewed by Reuters. They cover the firm’s operations in Venezuela between 2012 and 2015.

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WNU Editor: Reuters has been following this story for a long time, specifically on Venezuela's inability (or unwillingness) to repay its loans to Russia .... Russia Wants To Know Why Venezuela Is Behind It's Debt Payments (November 24, 2018).

Update: The story continues to get worse on Venezuela's ability to repay its loans .... Venezuela's oil production plunged in February, OPEC says (UPI). And with electrical blackouts now the norm in Venezuela, here is an easy prediction. Venezuela's oil production figures for March when they are released will be worse.

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