The Palestinian-led BDS movement calls for action to stop oil shipments from Italy to Israel.
All currently available data indicates that a crude oil tanker, the Poliegos, is transporting 200,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil from Sardinia, Italy to Israeli crude oil company Bazan, fuelling Israel’s apartheid and the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The vessel is already in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The shipment exposes how the far-right Italian government is putting the interests of the US-Israel genocidal axis above the will of the Italian people and international law.
Following the US bombing of Venezuela’s capital Caracas and the kidnapping of its president and his wife, the US has imposed a scheme to plunder and control Venezuelan natural resources: the country can only sell its oil to two US vetted companies, which then take control of the resources.
The oil is part of a one million barrel load which left Venezuela’s Jose terminal on 2 February for Sardinia, Italy where a reported 800,000 barrels have been unloaded for the Saras refinery in Sarroch, owned by Swiss-based Dutch trading company Vitol. Current data indicates that the remaining oil is due to be shipped to Haifa on 28 February, destined for the refinery owned by Israeli crude oil company Bazan.
Research by PICS and DisruptPower uncovered in 2025 that Vitol’s Saras refinery in Sarroch provided 17% of Israel’s imports of oil and refined products.
The Sardinian and Italian people as a whole have stood strongly against complicity in Israel’s continuing slaughter. On 6 February, Italian trade unions, led by dockworkers, launched a major international mobilisation against the transfer of military materiel through Italian ports to Israel with actions, strikes and protests in over 20 ports in the Mediterranean. As news emerged of the Venezuelan oil shipment to Sardinia, Italian civil society and unions organised a press conference in front of the Saras refinery in Sarroch, standing publicly against any oil being shipped on to apartheid Israel.
Under international law, states and corporations are obligated not to aid, assist or profit from international crimes and to take decisive action to stop them.
The far-right Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has already stated that Italy will participate as an observer in Trump’s so-called ‘Board of Peace’. Oil Change International’s research shows that Italy ranks fourth in refined petroleum shipments to Israel, between 1 November 2023 - 1 October 2025. By allowing Vitol to ship Venezulean oil to Israel from Sardinia, while knowing it will be used to fuel apartheid, occupation and genocide, the Italian government is kow-towing to the US’ ‘might makes right’ aggression and putting US-Israeli interests above the will of the people of Sardinia and Italy and above international law.
The BDS movement calls on trade unions, grassroots movements and wider civil society:
- In Sardinia and Italy, to hold the government to account for its complicity in the criminal shipment, and to pressure the government to deny any future shipments to Israel through Italian waters.
- In Norway, to pressure the insurance company, Gard, to withdraw the insurance of the vessel and prevent the delivery of the shipment.
- In Switzerland, to pressure Vitol to stop supplying Israel with the energy it needs to continue its atrocities against Palestinians and to end its complicity in imperialist and genocidal policies by the US-Israeli axis.
For further background on the Venezuelan oil shipment, Vitol’s complicity in US-Israeli crimes and information on Norway’s marine insurance company Gard in providing necessary insurance for the Poliegos’ criminal voyage, see 12 February BDS alert here.