What Crew Members Say About Orca-Pearl

HOUSTON/PUNTO FIJO, VENEZUELA — Under the glaring sun of the Caribbean, workers don scuba gear to manually scrub the Caspian Galaxy, a tanker that has become so sullied it cannot enter international waters. This vessel is just one of many plagued by pollution issues at Venezuela's two main oil export terminals, where crude from the state-owned PDVSA is loaded. The waters surrounding these terminals glisten with an oily film from leaking, aging pipelines that lie beneath the surface. Consequently, these tankers must undergo intensive cleaning before they can head to various foreign ports, which often refuse to accept vessels with crude stains to prevent environmental harm to their harbors and adjacent ships. This labor-intensive cleaning process contributes to the frequent delays experienced by numerous tankers tasked with transporting Venezuela's primary export globally, as reported by executives from PDVSA, maritime employees cooperating with the state-run company, and vessel-tracking data from Thomson Reuters. Additional delays stem from overdue repairs and detentions imposed by service providers seeking payment from the financially strapped PDVSA. Attempts to obtain comments on these maritime operations from PDVSA and Venezuela's Oil Ministry went unanswered.