The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, officials said. Reuters Sunday, which would be the second such operation this weekend and the third in less than two weeks if successful.
“The U.S. Guard is actively pursuing a sanctioned Black Fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion program,” a U.S. official said. “It is flying under a false flag and is the subject of a judicial seizure order.”
Another official said the tanker was under sanctions, but added that it had not yet been boarded and that interceptions could take different forms, including sailing or flying near vessels of concern.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not give the precise location of the operation or name the vessel being pursued.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
US President Donald Trump last week announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
Trump’s pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has included an increased military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes against ships in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near the South American country. At least 100 people were killed in these attacks.
The first two tankers seized operated on the black market and supplied oil to countries subject to sanctions, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said in a television interview on Sunday.
“And so I don’t think people need to be worried here in the United States about prices going up because of these seizures of these ships,” Hassett said. CBS‘s “Face the Nation” program. “There are only a few, and they were black market ships.”
But an oil trader said Reuters that the seizures could push oil prices slightly higher when Asian trading resumes on Monday.
“We could see a slight rise in prices at the open, given that market participants could see this as an escalation with more Venezuelan barrels at risk as the tanker is not on a US sanctions list,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS.
Another analyst said the seizures increase geopolitical risks and are likely to increase friction within the shadow fleet of ships that carry oil from sanctioned countries like Venezuela, Russia and Iran.
The seizures could legitimize and encourage Ukraine to continue attacking Russian ships and possibly encourage Europe to also stop Black Fleet ships linked to Moscow, said Matias Togni, an oil shipping analyst at NextBarrel.
Venezuelan and Iranian oil production are already showing signs of slowing, Togni said, adding that he expects the same to happen with Russia. Oil from countries under sanctions will likely be offered at deeper discounts as logistics become more expensive, which could help limit gains in benchmark oil prices, he said.
