Venezuela suspends Portugal's TAP over Guaido flight

Market: Oil products
17/02/20

Venezuela suspended TAP Air Portugal's operations for 90 days after the carrier transported opposition leader Juan Guaido back into Venezuela last week.

Venezuela's civil aviation authority (Inac) is investigating the airline for allegedly allowing Guaido to board flight TAP 173 with forged identity documents, transporting "unauthorized material" and failing to properly disinfect the aircraft's passenger cabin before the flight departed from Lisbon for Caracas, Transportation minister Hipolito Abreu said today.

The Portuguese carrier could be banned permanently if the Inac investigation concludes the airline engaged in "ill-intentioned conduct," Abreu added.

Guaido, who is recognized as Venezuela's legitimate president by over 50 countries, including Portugal, boarded the flight using the name Antonio Marquez, according to Abreu.

A senior aide to Guaido says he used his valid Venezuelan identity card.

Guaido's cousin Juan Jose Marquez, a commercial pilot who accompanied him on the flight, was arrested at Simon Bolivar International Airport outside Caracas after he was allegedly found to be carrying a bulletproof vest.

Marquez is currently jailed at the Caracas headquarters of military counter-intelligence agency DGCIM and will be tried for treason, among other charges, a presidential palace official told Argus.

Diosdado Cabello, head of National Constituent Assembly (ANC) and part of President Nicolas Maduro's inner circle, said "explosive substances" were found in the suspect's luggage.

Marquez's family denies the accusations.

TAP Air Portugal did not comment on the Venezuelan suspension, but a local executive with the airline denied the any international or Venezuelan civil aviation security regulations were violated.

The executive said the Maduro government is engaging in "political reprisal" against the carrier for transporting Guaido, who has been leading a US-backed campaign to unseat Maduro for more than a year.

Tap Portugal's suspension leaves only seven international carriers with Venezuelan operations, including Air France, Turkish Airlines, Copa, Caribbean Airlines, Spain's Iberia, Air Europa and Plus Ultra, according to INAC.

The US imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned carrier Conviasa on 7 February.

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14/05/25

German road firms issued €10.5mn tender-rigging fines

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US budget bill would prolong 45Z, boost crops

13/05/25

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13/05/25

US budget bill would prolong 45Z, boost crops

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The full Ways and Means Committee will consider amendments at a markup this afternoon, and House leaders want the full chamber to vote on the larger budget bill before the US Memorial Day holiday on 26 May. Afterwards, the proposal would head to the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers could float further changes. But the early draft, in a chamber with multiple deficit hawks and climate change skeptics that have pushed for a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act, is remarkable for not just keeping but expanding 45Z. The basics of the incentive — offering benefits to producers instead of blenders, throttling benefits based on carbon intensity, and offering more credit to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) — would remain intact. Various changes would help fuels derived from US crops. 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Since the House proposal does not address the current law's blunt system for rounding emissions values up and down, relatively higher-carbon corn and canola fuels still face the risk of falling just below 45Z's required carbon intensity threshold but then being rounded up to a level where they receive zero subsidy. The House bill would also restrict eligibility to fuels derived from feedstocks sourced in the US, Canada, and Mexico — an attempt at a middle ground between refiners that have increasingly looked abroad for biofuel inputs and domestic farm groups that have lobbied for 45Z to prioritize US crops. That language would make more durable current restrictions on foreign used cooking oil and significantly reduce the incentive to import tallow from South America and Australia, a loss for major renewable diesel producers Diamond Green Diesel, Phillips 66, and Marathon Petroleum. 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The spread between soybean oil and heating oil futures is then highly influential for the cost of D4 biomass-based diesel RIN credits, which are crucial for biofuel margins and have recently surged in value to their highest prices in over a year. The more lenient carbon accounting will also help farmers eyeing a long-term future in renewable fuel markets and will support margins for ethanol and biodiesel producers reliant on crops. Corn and soy groups have pushed the government for less punitive emissions tracking, worried that crop demand could wane if refiners could only turn a profit by using lower-carbon waste feedstocks instead. The House bill, if passed, would still run up against contradictory incentives from other governments, including SAF mandates in Europe that restrict fuels from crops and California's efforts to soon limit state low-carbon fuel standard credits for fuels derived from vegetable oils. By Cole Martin and Matthew Cope Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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Mexico industrial production contracts in March

13/05/25

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13/05/25

Mexico industrial production contracts in March

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12/05/25

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12/05/25

Naphtha no longer competitive feedstock: Braskem

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EU, UK diesel imports from Mideast, India fall in April

12/05/25

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12/05/25

EU, UK diesel imports from Mideast, India fall in April

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