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Tsvetana Paraskova

Tsvetana Paraskova

Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. 

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Venezuela Offers India 30% Discount On Oil...If It Pays In Cryptocurrency

Venezuela has offered India a 30-percent discount on crude oil purchases, but only if India agrees to pay in El Petro, the cryptocurrency that Venezuela is touting as the first national digital currency backed by crude oil reserves, the Indian outlet Business Standard reports.

Venezuelan blockchain department experts visited India in March and struck an agreement with Delhi-based Bitcoin trading firm Coinsecure to sell the Venezuelan cryptocurrency Petro in India, Business Standard reported, quoting multiple sources.

Maduro’s propaganda machine is touting the digital coin as a ‘ground-breaking’ first-ever national crypto currency, El Petro—backed by 5 billion barrels of oil reserves in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt. But most observers see this crypto issuance as a desperate attempt to skirt U.S. financial sanctions.

In March 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump banned U.S. purchases, transactions, and dealings of any digital coin or token issued for or by the government of Venezuela.

Now Venezuela wants to add the Petro as a cryptocurrency on Coinsecure to trade Petro against Bitcoin and the Indian rupee, according to Coinsecure CEO Mohit Kalra quoted by Business Standard.

“They are going to different countries and making offers. The offer that they have given to the Indian government is: you buy Petro and we will give you a 30 per cent discount on oil purchases,” Kalra told Business Standard.

Related: The Biggest Challenge In Electric Car Markets

Earlier this month, Coinsecure said that US$3.5 million worth of Bitcoins had been stolen from the exchange and blamed for this its Chief Security Officer (CSO) Amitabh Saxena. Investigation is still under way, Coinsecure said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, India’s crude imports from Venezuela—whose oil industry is collapsing rapidly—dropped to around 300,000 bpd between November 2017 and February 2018, down by 20 percent on the year, to the lowest level since 2012, Reuters reported in March, citing data from shipping and industry sources.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Leave a comment
  • Ilya G Poimandres on April 30 2018 said:
    Mashallah this works - as much as this is at the edge of fungibility, showing the effectiveness of crypto (please make them use nano), would demonstrate the broad appeal of a trustless exchange method. Future is here, just gotta topple the banking system before it takes over the world!
  • Bill Simpson on April 30 2018 said:
    Imagine what the NSA could do to it if they put their best hackers and supercomputers on sabotaging it. That could become a way to boost funding for The Agency?
  • Ted on May 01 2018 said:
    For a president Maduro makes a petty good bus driver.
  • John Brown on May 01 2018 said:
    So much for Venezuela's Petro folks. NOBODY is stupid enough to take it except as an immediate way to get a 30% discount on oil, and you can bet nobody is going to hold onto Petros because they know they are worthless. For Maduro to make this scheme work he take $100 worth of oil, has India convert $70 into Petros, and gives them the oil worth $100 for those Petros. In other words he's getting around Global Restrictions and giving away oil at a 30% discount. Given that 85% of Venezuelans are now officially poor, and not USA poor, but Latin America Poor, and losing weight because they don't get enough to eat, and many children are starving selling its failing production of oil at a 70% discount and having to do it by playing with a worthless crypto-currency is hardly a good strategy for the good of the Venezuelan people. Of course it is a way for Maduro and his cronies to get stuff their pockets still. I'd bet that the money they hide outside of the country is not held in Petros. Probably a combination of dollars, swish Franks, and Euros, unless they are as stupid as they appear to be?
  • John Scior on May 02 2018 said:
    Just a simple observation, 30 % discount for oil that is becoming increasingly more difficult to get to buyers, not because of scarcity but due to the ineptitude of Venezuelans leaders in their supposed management of the economy. If it were not for the suffering of the Venezuelan people, it would seem like the world is watching a Looney tunes cartoon. I'm sure the rest of OPEC members are laughing all the way to the bank.
  • Sherri_coco on July 21 2018 said:
    All I needed to start buying or selling bitcoins at furcoins was getting a btc wallet, no sign up, no verification and no delay or stress. They always deliver every time I use them.

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