It has become a norm. Unverified information leaked to this site is eventually supported by official evidence. The latest findings bring to a close an extraordinary claim: that Derwick Oil & Gas was, in fact, a silent partner of Russia’s Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. in its dealings with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
A detailed explanation is necessary. Derwick Associates is a Venezuelan company that bribed to obtain 12 procurement contracts between 2009 and 2010. Since the contracts awarded by PDVSA and other Venezuelan public institutions were executed by a subcontractor based in Missouri (Pro Energy Services), the Federal Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York launched an investigation, confirmed by Swiss authorities at the end of March.
Pro Energy Services billed Derwick Associates around $1.3 billion, but Derwick Associates collected a total estimated at $2.25 billion from PDVSA and other Venezuelan institutions. The resulting billion had to be laundered. In February 2011, Derwick Oil & Gas was registered in Barbados.
However, it was in September 2013 when the first leak regarding Derwick Oil & Gas’s activities occurred, involving one of its directors, Francisco Convit. The claims made by informants could not be confirmed. Then, in June 2014, a source at Morgan Stanley revealed that a former U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic was offering oil and gas (up to 75,000 BPD) from Venezuela, on behalf of Derwick. Around the same time, another source indicated that Derwick representatives had met with senior executives of BTG Pactual from Brazil, discussing oil concessions as part of joint ventures with PDVSA. None of this could be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Derwick acquired nearly 20% of the shares of Canadian Pacific Exploration & Production, becoming one of its largest shareholders. Alejandro Betancourt, CEO of Derwick Associates and director of Derwick Oil & Gas, is now part of the board of Pacific as an “independent director.”
Betancourt’s biography at Pacific is filled with lies. Derwick Associates -in its activities related to power plants- operates nowhere outside Venezuela, where all commissioned work was done by Pro Energy Services. It would be impossible for Betancourt to substantiate -with credible evidence- his alleged “significant experience in the oil and gas business on projects ranging from Europe to Africa.” Neither Pacific Energy nor the Canadian financial authorities have met the minimum regulatory checks to determine the legitimacy of Betancourt’s funds.
In the context of the struggle between Pacific Energy’s former management and the unwelcome arrival of Betancourt & co, a document was leaked to this site showing the connection between Derwick’s CFO (Orlando Alvarado) and a representative from Gazprombank (Christophe Gerard) of PetroZamora, a PDVSA-Gazprombank joint venture.
The aforementioned document, along with other circumstantial evidence, spurred a deeper investigation to obtain information related to the formation of PetroZamora.
And another twist: just after Bloomberg published the news “Swiss Banks Land in Mid of Money-Laundering Probe — Again” related to Derwick and PDVSA, an email landed in my inbox: “Did you know Derwick is a silent shareholder? in Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V.?”
Documents from the Amsterdam registry corroborated the lead: Orlando José Alvarado Moreno, Francisco Convit Guruceaga, Boris Ivanov, and Christophe Gerard are associated with Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. (company number 52285421). It was registered in March 2011 and was owned at that time by GPB Netfegaz Services. In September 2011, it transferred to GBP Global Resources, and in September 2012 admitted Derwick’s Convit as a shareholder/director.
Convit was a director from September 2012 until April 4, 2016, when Alvarado seems to have taken over. While Ivanov and Gerard have been or are directors/class A shareholders, Convit and Alvarado hold class B shares.
The CEO of PDVSA met with Boris Ivanov from Gazprombank in Caracas in November 2013 to sign a loan agreement. Derwick and any of its executives were never mentioned.
After consulting an energy expert, more evidence was found in the Official Gazette of Venezuela.
According to information published in La Gaceta, PetroZamora was created by law of the Venezuelan Congress on February 7, 2012. This was followed by Presidential Decree No. 8,832 signed by Hugo Chávez on March 6, 2012, and Presidential Decree No. 8,905 signed by Hugo Chávez on April 10, 2012.
The Congress and the first Presidential Decree established that 60% of the shares would be assigned to Corporación Venezolana de Petróleo S.A. (CVP) and 40% would belong to Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V., while the second Presidential Decree granted a production period of 25 years in the designated area.
The new venture would produce oil in an area of 697.96 km2 in the Zulia region, described as Bachaquero Tierra and Lagunillas Tierra.
On April 28, 2015, the Venezuelan Congress approved an expansion of the petroleum production area assigned to PetroZamora. Additional rights were granted for Bachaquero Lago, Block VII Ceuta, Block III Bachaquero, and Block III Centro, increasing the concession area by 1,157.07 km2. This new Congressional law was followed on June 2, 2015, by a presidential reform to some articles of the previous Decree No. 8,905.
Derwick Oil & Gas, nor Orlando Alvarado, are mentioned anywhere. But then, the following information exposed the scheme.
On May 26, 2015, the Ministry of Oil and Energy of Venezuela published in Official Gazette No. 40.668 minutes from a shareholder assembly of PetroZamora (reported by PetroZamora’s now-arrested legal advisor), describing Francisco Convit as the “Principal Director” of PetroZamora representing Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. with a 40% stake.
This is the same Francisco Convit who serves as a director of both Derwick Associates and Derwick Oil & Gas, as noted above. In fact, Derwick has been a silent partner in Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. since the initial dealings with PDVSA. Notably, Convit/Alvarado are described as class B shareholders in PetroZamora, just as they are in Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V.
So here’s a question: did Hugo Chávez, Diosdado Cabello, Rafael Ramírez, and Nicolás Maduro, as officials who authorized the creation of the joint venture, know that Derwick’s executives were partners? Given the amount of coverage the Venezuelan power plant fiasco has received, its corruption, and the associated international investigations, how could Chavista officials allow Derwick to continue making deals with the state?
Reuters reported in July 2013 that Gazprombank -without mentioning the Latin America Ventures B.V. branch- would grant a $1 billion loan to PDVSA for the establishment of PetroZamora. The PDVSA CEO signed the loan agreement with Ivanov from Gazprombank, as seen in the video above. Sources familiar with Derwick’s activities claim it placed as much as $300 million of its own funds into that loan, to be laundered through PetroZamora. PetroZamora should be producing over 70,000 BPD now. Derwick employees, such as former U.S. ambassador Hans Hertell, have offered PetroZamora’s oil and gas on the open market. No wonder Convit can shout with excitement after purchasing a $2 million horse for his racing stable…
It is alleged that Derwick Oil & Gas used a structure of shell companies in Panama, including Kayland Holdings, registered with Mossack Fonseca, and Beefield International to transfer funds to Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. through accounts in BSI, Banca Credinvest, Julius, owned by BTG Pactual. Baer, HSBC, and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. and Derwick Oil & Gas entered into a loan agreement in April 2013, whereby Derwick committed to finance Gazprombank’s loan to PDVSA for the purposes of PetroZamora, said people familiar with the agreement. An example was provided to this site: a transaction that took place in October 2014 when Christophe Gerard sent a communication to Convit informing him about the payment of around $12 million as part of the reimbursements of the “loan agreement.”
Requests for comments sent to Gerard/Gazprombank went unanswered. A Venezuelan shareholder of Banca Credinvest (Antonio Pardo Andretta) denied any association between his bank and Derwick. Banca Credinvest is said to be at the center of the transactions between Derwick and Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V.
Gazprom and Gazprombank were included by the U.S. Treasury on its list of sanctioned Russian entities due to the invasion of Ukraine. The Federal Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and Swiss authorities are investigating PDVSA and its corrupt dealings with Derwick in particular. Ivanov and Gerard have direct links to Gazprom and Gazprombank.
Alejandro Betancourt -the principal head of Derwick- has been denouncing his ties to Gazprom for years.
The final question is: are Gazprom’s staff (Ivanov and Gerard) facilitating Derwick’s money laundering and using PDVSA for that purpose?