EXCLUSIF. Le groupe français Technip acteur (malgré lui ?) d’un accord secret entre Caracas et Damas pour contourner l’embargo syrien.
Par Mélanie Delattre, Clément Fayol
Avec ses plages de sable blanc, ses maisons colorées et sa raffinerie géante, l’île caribéenne d’Aruba – au large du Venezuela – a tout pour figurer en toile de fond d’un roman d’espionnage. Un roman dont deux États parias, le Venezuela et la Syrie, auraient pu être les principaux protagonistes.
La réalité dépassant parfois la fiction, une enquête de Bloomberg a révélé fin mai que ces deux pays considérés comme infréquentables par une partie de la communauté internationale avaient scellé un accord secret pour commercialiser le pétrole syrien en dépit de l’embargo.
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“Con sus playas de arena blanca, casas de colores y su refinería gigante, la isla caribeña de Aruba – al norte de Venezuela – tiene todo lo necesario para aparecer como el fondo de una novela de espionaje. Una novela cuyos dos estados delincuentes, Venezuela y Siria, podrían haber sido los principales protagonistas.
La realidad supera a la ficción a veces; una encuesta de Bloomberg reveló a fines de mayo que los dos países considerados como no frecuentables por una parte de la comunidad internacional, habían sellado un acuerdo secreto para comercializar el petróleo sirio a pesar del embargo”
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Artículo aparecido en : Modifié le 16/06/2017 à 17:00 – Publié le 16/06/2017 à 09:21 | Le Point.fr
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25/05/2017 : Página de Bloomberg
Caribbean Scheme
It’s unclear whether the plan is still under consideration. A key player, Wilmer Ruperti, a Venezuelan oil trader who grew enormously wealthy through his closeness to the country’s leadership, acknowledged in a phone interview his participation but said he no longer has a role in it. Syrian officials approached him in early 2012 during a party at the Syrian Club of Caracas.
At that time, Ruperti began renting a lavish guesthouse on Aruba’s northern coast to scout out a refinery and meet a local realtor, Oscar Helmeyer. He had his eye on a facility that had just been shut down by its owners, San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp., causing massive unemployment on the island. Ruperti offered to pay Helmeyer $15 million for help in buying the refinery, one of the world’s largest, although in the end Venezuela’s state oil company leased it. In an interview, Helmeyer said Ruperti also met with Aruban Prime Minister Mike Eman and another top official, Mike de Meza. Both declined repeated requests for interviews.
In a September 2012 letter to Syria’s then-ambassador to Venezuela, Ghassan Abbas, Ruperti said the point of the scheme would be to “avoid the boycott that has been implemented by United States of America and the European Community.”
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Political Pawn
While many Aruban officials say they had no knowledge of the Syrian oil plan, parliamentary elections will be held in September and the refinery may turn into a political pawn because its closing caused so much suffering and unemployment. When Valero shut operations in March 2012, it was one of Aruba’s largest employers and the island plunged into a double-dip recession. Its economy is now the third-most dependent on tourism in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“This is a shock,” said Dangui Oduber, an opposition lawmaker, whose father served two terms as Aruba’s prime minister. “Our tourism industry can’t afford to be related to the Syrian government.”
Oduber said he will request a public hearing to bring Eman and other ministers who signed off on the Citgo lease before parliament.
On a recent weekday, the only signs of life in once-bustling San Nicolas were two pimps standing guard on the street corners as Venezuelan and Colombian prostitutes in blue and yellow bikinis posed alongside abandoned row houses. Outside the refinery entrance, five donkeys plodded through a field of cacti.
Whatever happens to the refinery, the uncovered plot to reopen it raises questions about possible efforts that haven’t been exposed.
"Syria is searching for alternatives and ways to get around the law and they’ve found friends in our own hemisphere,” said Shannon O’Neil, senior fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If Venezuela is willing to go through all of these contortions to help the Assad regime, what else are they willing to do?"