US sanctions more ships, intends to keep oil from seized Venezuelan tanker

Washington: The United States has added six more ships to its list of sanctioned vessels said to be ferrying black-market Venezuelan oil, amid expectations it will seize more tankers after successfully commandeering one off the Venezuelan coast this week.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left the door open to more such operations at a news conference on Friday (AEDT), when she also confirmed the seized crude oil carrier would be taken to an American port and the US intended to keep and use the oil on board.

“The vessel is currently undergoing a forfeiture process,” she said. “[It] will go to a US port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil. However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”

American Marines, special forces and the Coast Guard stormed the tanker, called Skipper, in a dawn raid on Wednesday in an act the South American country labelled “blatant theft” and international piracy.

Reuters reported the tanker was initially loaded with 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, with about 200,000 offloaded to a different ship, bound for Cuba.

The US first sanctioned the vessel in 2022, saying it was part of a network of so-called ghost tankers smuggling crude oil for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah.

The Trump administration is intensifying its campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whom the US does not regard as the country’s legitimate president. He has been in power since 2013 and claimed victory in sham elections last year.

On Friday (AEDT), the US Treasury added to its long list of sanctions on Maduro and his family, targeting three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as a Maduro-affiliated businessman and six shipping companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector.

For each of those companies, a ship was also sanctioned, opening up the possibility of those vessels being seized by US forces. Leavitt indicated further seizures were possible.

“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.

Reuters reported the US was planning to intercept additional ships in coming weeks, citing six sources familiar with the matter.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and its economy is reliant on oil production of about a million barrels a day. But it is locked out of global oil markets by US sanctions and sells most of its output to Chinese refiners via a complex network of shadowy intermediaries, many of which are shell companies.

The seizure of the tanker follows more than 20 lethal US strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, which the US military says were ferrying drugs on behalf of Venezuelan gangs.

US President Donald Trump was vague about future actions on Thursday, saying “other things are happening” but declining to say what they were.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto called the seizure a “blatant robbery and an act of international piracy, announced publicly by the president of the United States”.

Venezuela, Russia and Iran commonly use shadow fleet tankers, trans-shipment and third-party countries to export oil amid crippling US and global sanctions. Trump said on Thursday that the Skipper was largest such ship ever to be seized.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Maduro by phone to express solidarity with the people of Venezuela and affirm his support for Maduro’s policies “aimed at protecting national interests and sovereignty amid growing external pressure”, a Kremlin statement said.

The two countries last month entered into a Treaty on Strategic Partnership and Cooperation. Leavitt said Trump would not have been fazed by the Putin-Maduro call.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado said on Thursday that “decisive” actions by the US – including the seizure of the oil tanker – had left Maduro’s repressive government at its weakest point.

She spoke after she appeared in public for the first time in about a year, following her arrival in Norway’s capital, Oslo, where her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf on Wednesday.

Trump action’s “have been decisive to reach where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker”, Machado said. “Because before, the regime thought it had impunity … Now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching.”

Machado vowed to return to the country to keep fighting for democracy, but sidestepped questions on whether a US military intervention is necessary to remove Maduro from power.

With AP, Reuters

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