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PNA seeks to diversify oil supply with imports from Venezuela

22 May 2014 23:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The deal reached with Venezuela to import oil products to the Palestinian territories would improve Palestine's economy and put an end to Israel's monopoly of the Palestinian market, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Palestinian National Authority (PNA) minister of foreign affairs Reyad al-Malki told Xinhua that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a deal with his Venezuelan counterpart last week to import oil products from the Latin American country directly to the Palestinian territories with reasonable prices.

According to the signed deal, which was reached after two-year talks, Venezuela will soon ship 240,000 barrels of oil products including oil and diesel to the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians believe that the deal will achieve economical benefits and will end more than 20 years of dependence on oil products from Israel.

Israel has been the only source of shipping fuels to the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the PNA was established after signing Oslo peace accords in 1993. It is the first ever deal the PNA has reached to import oil products and fuels without Israel being a third party.

Asked about the costs of shipping the oil products and how PNA would pay for the oil, the Palestinian diplomat said that the future talks between the two sides will focus on managing the payments in a way that doesn't exhaust the PNA's budget.

Venezuela is a member in OPEC and owns the largest reserve of oil in the world. It produces 3 million barrels of oil per day. However, al-Malki admitted that shipping the oil products from Latin America directly to the Palestinian territories while Israel is excluded would make the deal complicated.

Israel hasn't so far commented to the signing of the deal between Venezuela and Palestine. But a senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that the PNA is planning to ship the oil through Israeli ports or through the Jordan port of Aqaba.