CARACAS, Venezuela (CMC) — Venezuela’s state-owned oil and natural gas company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has announced plans to suspend petroleum deliveries to some Caribbean countries under its Petrocaribe agreement.

A report from the South American country’s Oil Ministry said the move comes as a result of falling crude production and low refinery utilisation.

Under the Petrocaribe agreement, Venezuela sells petroleum to Central American and Caribbean nations on favourable terms.

But according to the Oil Ministry report, PDVSA is indefinitely suspending refined product deliveries to eight of the 17 countries that are covered under the agreement – Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Kitts Nevis.

But PDVSA says that during this month, it will continue to supply refined products to Cuba.

Cuba is one of the countries that has most benefited from the PetroCaribe agreement.

Venezuela started the arrangement in 2005 with Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Granada, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, and Guyana, which later pulled out.