Context: On July 11, 2026, The New York Times published an article referring to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the de facto ruler of Venezuela. According to the publication, although former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is officially in charge of the country, she coordinates many key decisions with Rubio. The article also claimed that proceeds from Venezuelan oil sales first go to the United States, which then transfers them in installments to Caracas. The White House had not commented on this report as of the time of publication.
Two days after The New York Times published the article “How Marco Rubio Is Running Venezuela from Afar,” its contents were discussed on the First National Channel of Belarusian Radio. Iryna Novikava, who has a Ph.D. in economics and is the head of the Department of Management, Business Technologies, and Sustainable Development at the Belarusian State Technological University, drew a parallel between the oil purchased by European countries from Venezuela and Azerbaijan.
“Venezuelan oil isn’t something you can simply bring to market and sell. It has to be blended. The same applies to Azerbaijani oil. As you already know, it is blended with Russian oil. When the Azerbaijanis tried to sell it, they ended up causing damage to several refineries in Europe,” Novikava claimed.
Venezuelan oil needs to be diluted to flow through pipelines. It is heavy and viscous and contains a high sulfur content. However, Azerbaijani oil is completely different. On the contrary, it is lighter and higher quality than Russian oil in several characteristics: it contains less sulfur and has a lower density. This is reflected in the price. Azerbaijani crude oil costs nearly one and a half times more than Russian Urals crude oil and slightly more than the global benchmark, Brent crude oil.
The incident involving the contamination of Azerbaijani oil did indeed occur, but Novikava distorted the facts. A year ago, an Azerbaijani oil shipment bound for Europe was found to have abnormally high levels of organic chlorides. While small amounts of these substances are permissible in crude oil, high concentrations during refining can corrode refinery equipment. This oil was headed for Romania, Italy, and the Czech Republic. However, the contamination was detected in time, and none of these countries reported any damage to their refineries.
Novikava’s remarks are misleading because she speaks of contamination as if it were normal for Azerbaijani oil. In fact, it was an isolated incident. There is no publicly available information regarding how the hazardous substance entered the pipeline. Romanian media outlets reported that the authorities were investigating Russia’s possible involvement, but no official statements were issued on that.
Azerbaijan has supplied and continues to supply oil to European countries. This year, Azerbaijan has already sold 10 million metric tons of its light crude oil, and no refinery has reported any damage caused by it.
