- This is the first known seizure of an oil tanker since the start of the American mobilization.
- Signals a new effort to attack Venezuela’s main source of income.
- Its impact on global oil supplies is unclear.
WASHINGTON: The United States has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, a move that sent oil prices soaring and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.
“We just seized an oil tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a big tanker, a very big one, the biggest ever, in fact, and other things are happening,” said Trump, who has pressured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to resign.
Asked what would happen with the oil, Trump replied: “We’re keeping it, I guess. »
Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela. The incident was the first known action against an oil tanker since he ordered a massive military buildup in the region. The United States has carried out strikes against ships suspected of drug trafficking, raising concerns among lawmakers and legal experts.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on
A 45-second video posted by Bondi showed two helicopters approaching a ship and armed individuals in camouflage rappelling down on it.
Trump administration officials have not named the ship. British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the tanker Skipper was believed to have been seized off the coast of Venezuela early on Wednesday. The United States imposed sanctions on the tanker for what Washington saw as involvement in the Iranian oil trade when it was called Adisa.
The Skipper departed Venezuela’s main oil port, José, between Dec. 4 and 5, after loading about 1.1 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude, according to satellite information analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuela’s national oil company PDVSA.
Oil futures rose following news of the seizure. After trading in negative territory, Brent crude futures rose 27 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $62.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 21 cents, also 0.4%, to close at $58.46 a barrel.
Maduro spoke Wednesday at a march commemorating a military battle, without addressing reports of the tanker’s seizure.
An impact on oil?
Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil last month, the third highest monthly average so far this year, as PDVSA imported more naphtha to dilute its extra-heavy oil production. Even as Washington has increased pressure on Maduro, the United States has yet to take steps to interfere with oil flows.
Venezuela has had to heavily sell its crude to its main buyer, China, due to increasing competition from sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran.
“This is just another geopolitical and sanctions headwind weighing on the availability of spot supply,” said Rory Johnston, an analyst at Commodity Context.
“The seizure of this tanker further exacerbates concerns about rapid supply, but does not immediately change the situation in any fundamental way, because these barrels were already going to be floating for some time,” Johnston said.
PDVSA partner Chevron said its operations in the country were normal and continuing without interruption.
The company, responsible for all Venezuelan crude exports to the United States, last month increased its crude exports to the United States to around 150,000 b/d, up from 128,000 b/d in October.
Growing pressure on Maduro
Maduro claimed the U.S. military buildup was aimed at overthrowing him and taking control of the OPEC country’s vast oil reserves.
Since early September, the Trump administration has carried out more than 20 strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
Experts say the strikes may be illegal, as there has been little or no publicly available evidence that the boats were carrying drugs or that it was necessary to remove them from the water rather than arrest them, seize their cargo and question those on board.
Concerns about the strikes grew this month after reports that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike that killed two survivors.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that a large portion of Americans, including about a fifth of Trump’s Republicans, oppose the U.S. military’s campaign of deadly ship strikes.
In a broad strategy document released last week, Trump said his administration’s foreign policy would be focused on reasserting its dominance over the Western Hemisphere.
