According to Reuters' findings, even after the U.S. increased the sanctions pressure on Venezuela, crude oil from the Latin American country continued to flow into China via the Switzerland-based unit of Russian oil giant Rosneft and after ship-to-ship transfers of the crude to conceal that its place of origin was Venezuela, Reuters has found. Between July and December, 18 tankers carried a total of 19.7 million barrels of rebranded Venezuelan crude oil to Chinese ports, Reuters found. After the new U.S. sanctions in August, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) - one of PDVSA's top buyers of crude oil even after the initial rounds of sanctions on Venezuela took hold - canceled loading plans for Venezuelan oil, after the Trump Administration targeted companies - even foreign ones - doing business with PDVSA, threatening to seize their assets in the United States if they have any. Shipments of oil from Venezuela to China have continued into this year, too, according to Reuters' findings.