US intercepts second oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela

Trump administration shows action that seized second oil tanker coming from Venezuela United States forces intercepted and seized this Saturday (20) the second oil tanker in international waters close to Venezuela, in yet another sign of increased pressure from the Trump administration on Nicolás Maduro. The first seizure occurred on the 10th. The measure, initially reported by the Associated Press and Reuters, was confirmed by the US Department of Homeland Security in a post on social media. The Venezuelan government has not yet commented on the US action. The ship was docked before the seizure in a Venezuelan port, according to Kristi Noem, US Secretary of Homeland Security. “The United States will continue to combat the illicit movement of oil under sanctions used to fund narcoterrorism in the region,” Noem wrote in X. She added that the US Coast Guard intercepted the vessel before dawn, with support from the Pentagon. “The New York Times” says that the seized oil tanker has a Panamanian flag. The officials cited by the AP and Reuters were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity. One described the action to the Associated Press as a “consensual boarding,” with the tanker voluntarily stopping and allowing U.S. forces to board the ship. Trump, after the first seizure of oil tankers this month, promised that the US would blockade Venezuela. That week, President Nicolás Maduro said the act was “brutal interference” by Washington. Some sanctioned oil tankers are already diverting from Venezuela. Since the first seizure, Venezuela’s oil exports have fallen sharply. Why are ships being seized? Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, with a capacity of approximately 303 billion barrels — or 17% of the known volume —, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the official US energy statistics body. This volume puts the country ahead of giants such as Saudi Arabia (267 billion) and Iran (209 billion), by a wide margin. Much of Venezuela’s oil, however, is extra-heavy, which requires sophisticated technology and high investments for extraction. 🔎 In practice, the potential is enormous, but it remains underutilized due to precarious infrastructure and international sanctions that limit operations and access to capital. There is a clear US interest. According to the EIA, Venezuela’s heavy crude “is well suited to North American refineries, especially those located along the Gulf Coast.” In this context, the Republican achieves two objectives simultaneously: by seeking to favor the US economy, he also puts pressure on Venezuela’s oil production and exports — a sector that is central to the country’s economy and supports the government of Nicolás Maduro. The initial effects have already started to appear this week. A Bloomberg News report indicated that Caracas faces a lack of capacity to store oil, amid measures by Washington to prevent vessels from docking or leaving Venezuelan ports. Since the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector in 2019, traders and refiners that buy Venezuelan oil have resorted to using a “ghost fleet” of tankers, which hide their location, and vessels sanctioned for transporting oil from Iran or Russia. China is the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude oil, which accounts for about 4% of its imports. In December, shipments are expected to reach an average of more than 600,000 barrels per day, according to analysts consulted by Reuters. For now, the oil market is well supplied, and there are millions of barrels in tankers off the coast of China waiting to be unloaded. If the embargo remains in place for some time, the loss of nearly a million barrels per day in crude oil supply is likely to put upward pressure on oil prices. The attack on oil tankers comes as Trump has ordered the Defense Department to carry out a series of attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean that his administration alleges are smuggling fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the United States and beyond. At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known attacks since the beginning of September. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair published this week that Trump “wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro shouts ‘uncle.'”

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