Venezuelan shipyards left out of Pdvsa orders

Venezuelan state oil holding Pdvsa on Wednesday informed that Argentine shipyard R?o Santiago (ARS) started, together with Pdvsa marine affiliate PDV Marina and Venezuelan Dikes and Shipyards (Dianca), the construction of the first out of four oil tankers ordered from Argentina. However, Dianca workers’ union claimed on Thursday that they were excluded from such works.

Pedro Henr?quez, head of Dianca workers’ trade union, said so far none of Dianca workers had travelled to Argentina to witness construction works of the tanker, as provided for under an agreement between the governments of Caracas and Buenos Aires. He labelled such agreement as illegal, as it provides for the construction of Pdvsa oil tankers abroad rather than ordering the ships from Dianca, which could have created a significant number of jobs and could have resulted in savings for $20 million per tanker.

Under the agreement between PDV Marina and R?o Santiago, each tanker costs $56 million.