* Oil buyers ask to remove Geneva unit from all papers
* Fuel oil cargoes re-appear on the market
By Olga Yagova, Natalia Chumakova and Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW/LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Russian oil major Rosneft
is facing a logistical headache as several customers have
demanded it immediately remove its Swiss trading division,
sanctioned by the United States this week, from all supply
chains, according to five trading sources.
Washington this month imposed sanctions on Rosneft's
Geneva-based unit Rosneft Trading (RTSA), accusing it of
providing a financial lifeline to Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro's government.
U.S. officials have accused the Rosneft subsidiary of
propping up the Venezuelan oil sector and engaging in
ship-to-ship transfers to actively evade American sanctions.
Rosneft has said the unit's activities are legal and accused
Washington of double standards because it allowed U.S. rival
Chevron to work in Venezuela.
Washington has given companies 90 days to wind down
transactions with RTSA but trading sources said several buyers
of Rosneft’s oil have demanded the removal of the unit from
supply chain immediately, saying that otherwise they may
struggle to buy the oil.
"Logistically it is a major headache. You have to change
many contracts," said a source familiar with Rosneft's
operations.
Trading sources said that at the moment all oil purchases
from Rosneft continue.
Rosneft did not reply to a Reuters request for comment on
Friday.
The U.S. sanctions were meant to stop Rosneft Trading from
shipping Venezuelan oil but trading sources said there are signs
the sanctions are now complicating deliveries of Russian oil as
companies try to avoid association with Rosneft Trading which
does a significant part of its business in Europe.
Among examples of logistical complications, sources cited a
tender re-issued on Friday by Rosneft to sell 1.2 million tonnes
of fuel oil for March-May delivery from Russian ports. Reuters
could not determine why Rosneft re-offered the volumes but RTSA
had previously featured in the supply chain as a seller when the
tender was first awarded last November.
Sources said RTSA is no longer identified in the re-issued
tender. Documents for the new tender seen by Reuters show the
seller as Rosneft, not its subsidiaries or affiliated companies
including RTSA which were in the original document. Rosneft did
not answer a question from Reuters about the tender
change.
RTSA has been a regular seller of Rosneft's oil and products
to most global major players, including European oil majors BP
and Royal Dutch/Shell, U.S. majors ExxonMobil and all top
trading houses including Glencore, Vitol and Trafigura.
"The main objective now is to change the chains and get
every mention of RTSA removed", said an executive with a major
trading house which is buying from Rosneft.
"Our compliance asked to avoid any new dealings with RTSA
starting Feb. 18", a source in another trading firm said.
RTSA was also a major supplier of oil to Rosneft's German
refinery and the firm is working on changing those arrangements
too, sources said, to ensure its German partners are in
compliance with the U.S. sanctions.
One of the sources said Rosneft will need to decide what to
do with its office in Geneva and then sign new deals with
bank-lenders and shippers.
"The new company has to be registered abroad, work with
banks, be able to handle oil supplies to refineries and have no
relation to RTSA. No easy solution here", a source said.
(Additional reporting by Julia Payne
Editing by Alistair Bell)
