OFAC Sanctions State-Run Cuban Import-Export Company

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cubametales, Cuba’s state-run oil import-export company, for importing oil from Venezuela, Treasury said in a July 3 press release. In exchange for the oil, Treasury said, Cubametales provides Venezuela and the Nicolas Maduro regime with “defense, intelligence and security assistance.”

“Treasury’s sanctions on Cubametales will disrupt Maduro’s attempts to use Venezuela’s oil as a bargaining tool to help his supporters purchase protection from Cuba and other malign foreign actors,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Treasury said the oil trade between Cuba and Venezuela began in 2000 and has continued despite U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. The company is being sanctioned partly because the business it provides Venezuela is helping “fuel the corruption of Maduro and his associates and help maintain their control” over the country's people, the press release said. Cubametales, the charterer of the oil trade between the two countries, also has branched into “non-traditionally traded oil products such as sulfur fuel and diluted crude oil,” Treasury said.

As part of the announcement, Treasury also removed sanctions from eight Venezuela-related tankers or entities. OFAC delisted PB Tankers S.p.A., which was sanctioned in April for operating in Venezuela’s oil sector, and six of its vessels: Alba Marina, Gold Point, Ice Point, Indian Point, Iron Point and Silver Point. OFAC removed sanctions from PB Tankers because the company “terminated its charter agreement with Cubametales” after it was designated, the press release said. The company also took steps to “increase scrutiny of its business operations” to prevent future violations, Treasury said.

“Treasury’s decision to remove restrictions on PB Tankers and unblock previously sanctioned vessels is a reminder that positive changes in behavior can result in the lifting of sanctions,” Mnuchin said.