The participation of the National Superintendence of Cryptoactives and Related Activities (Sunacrip) in this scheme to prevent the entry to the National Executive of the currencies obtained from the sale of oil, was decisive, in the opinion of Alejandro Terán Martínez, consultant of the oil company ICM Proyectos 2021 .
Joselit Ramírez, head of Sunacrip, was arrested last Friday for his alleged participation in this event. And that same day, President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree appointing Anabel Pereira Fernández as the new Superintendent to carry out a restructuring process, according to Extraordinary Official Gazette 6,739.
Terán Martínez explained that the blockade against Venezuela imposed by the United States caused the country to seek alternative ways to sell its oil. “The government’s strategy was correct; that is to say, looking for private operators to place the oil on the world market, circumventing the blockade,” Terán Martínez said.
The expert recalled that the anomalous situation occurred between October and November of last year, when Venezuela, via operators, sold around 120 million barrels, with which it billed a figure close to 3 billion dollars. “There are those who speak of 5 billion dollars,” he clarified.
But since the United States was on the fly to torpedo these operations, the cryptocurrency mechanism was devised with which Venezuela would collect the fruit of its sales, explained Terán Martínez.
“And that is where Sunacrip comes into play, the official entity in charge of carrying out these transactions in cryptocurrencies and making the money go down to Venezuela,” explained Terán Martínez, who has the impression that this institution acted “like a Trojan horse against Venezuela, because they were the ones who handled the collection of the oil bill”
And the matter broke out in December of last year, when the National Executive was going to review its accounts to dispose of those resources from the oil sale and could not find them. “The government realized that these resources were not registered, according to the reports,” said the lawyer and oil expert, who warned that a similar situation occurred with the sale of coke, a product used for heating and as a mix for asphalt. , among others.
“Coke was key to the Ukraine-Russia crisis, because it alleviated the cold when it was used in heating ovens in those European countries with low temperatures,” he explained.
In the last two years, Venezuela produced 13 million tons of coke that were also placed on the world market, said Terán Martínez.
Coke is a kind of improved coal that comes out when the oil is subjected to a perfection process in those large structures called Improvers installed in the state-owned Petromonagas, Petrocedeño and Petropiar.
“You put the crude into the upgrader and from there it comes out: improved oil, gas and coke,” explained Terán Martínez.
Coke began to be profitable for Venezuela from the year 2021 when it was possible to invest in a shipping terminal installed around the José Antonio Anzoátegui Petrochemical Complex, located in Barcelona (Anzoátegui), near the Cristo de Jose.
“Starting that year, a route was designed where dump trucks looked for the coke in the pile, took it to the shipping terminal and took it out to foreign trade in large ships,” explained the expert, who clarified that this process was carried out by Venezuela with private entrepreneurs.
“I repeat, the Venezuelan government’s strategy was correct, because the blockade had to be circumvented and I’ll tell you more, don’t be surprised that what happened with the money lost via cryptocurrencies, is part of that same block imposed by the United States, who has here their operators”, concluded Terán Martínez.
