The US Coast Guard is reportedly pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, in what would be the second such operation this weekend and the third in less than two weeks if successful.
“The United States Coast Guard is actively pursuing a sanctioned ‘dark fleet’ vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” one US official told Reuters. “Commanding under a false flag and warrant of seizure.
Another official said sanctions had been imposed on the tanker, but added that it had not yet been boarded and that interception could take various forms – including sailing or flying close to the affected vessels.
Official sources did not give Reuters the specific location of the operation or the name of the pursued vessel.
‘Bella 1’
British maritime risk management group Vanguard, along with a US maritime security source, identified the vessel as the Bella 1, a very large oil tanker that was added to the US Treasury sanctions list last year, which said the vessel had links to Iran.
The Bella 1 was empty as it approached Venezuela on Sunday, according to TankerTrackers.com.
In 2021, the vessel secured the shipment of Venezuelan oil to China, according to internal documents of state oil company PDVSA. It also previously carried Iranian oil, according to the vessel tracking service.
Trump’s pressure campaign
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday, while US President Donald Trump last week announced a “blockade” of all oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela as part of sanctions.
Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has included an increased military presence in the region and more than two dozen military attacks on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near the South American nation. At least 100 people were killed in the attacks.
The Skipper, a very large oil tanker and the first Venezuela-related vessel seized by the United States on Dec. 10, reached the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area near Houston on Sunday. Very large oil tankers cannot pass through the Houston Ship Channel because the waterway is not deep enough, and they usually transfer oil on board to smaller tankers at GOLA.
The first two seized oil tankers operated on the black market, supplying oil to countries under sanctions, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said in a televised interview on Sunday.
“And so I don’t think people here in the U.S. have to worry about prices going up because of these seizures of these ships,” Hassett said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “There are only a few and they were black market ships.
But analysts said the fresh catches could push oil prices slightly higher when Asian trading resumes on Monday.
UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said “we may see a modest price increase at the open, given that market participants could see this as an escalation with more Venezuelan barrels at risk” because the tanker seized on Saturday was not under US sanctions.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that the country’s oil trade will continue. But the new U.S. focus on oil tankers will raise geopolitical risks and likely hurt Venezuela’s oil revenues, analysts said.
The effects could be felt quickly as Venezuela’s export volumes fall sharply and oil storage tanks fill faster, forcing the OPEC producer to cut output, said Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
(With inputs from Reuters)
