The rebranding of the crude has cut transportation costs for Venezuelan crude and facilitated U.S. sanction circumvention, the report noted. Before, traders resorted to ship-to-ship transfer at sea to mask the crude but now they have taken to manipulating vessels’ location signals to make it look like they are travelling from Brazilian ports instead of Venezuelan ones, data from TankerTrackers.com has shown, per Reuters.
The ultimate goal of the sanctions is to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero, as stated by President Trump in a February directive to the State Department. The president directed the Secretary of State to “implement a robust and continual campaign, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury and other relevant executive departments or agencies, to drive Iran’s export of oil to zero, including exports of Iranian crude to the People’s Republic of China.”