U.S. Seizing Another Vessel Off Venezuelan Coast: Report

December 20 (Reuters) – The United States has interdicted and seized a ship in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Saturday. The move comes just days after US President Donald Trump announced he would impose a “blockade” on all sanctioned oil tankers entering and exiting Venezuela.

This would be the second time the US has seized a tanker near Venezuela in recent weeks, and it comes as the US is mounting a major military build-up in the region.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say where the operation was carried out but added that the Coast Guard took the lead.

The Coast Guard and Pentagon referred questions to the White House, but the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuela’s oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“I am ordering a COMPLETE AND COMPLETE BLOCK OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS entering and exiting Venezuela,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday.

In the days since US forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last weekAn effective embargo was imposed, with loaded ships carrying millions of barrels of oil remaining in Venezuelan waters rather than risking being seized.

Since the initial seizure, Venezuelan crude exports have fallen sharply.

While many ships collecting oil in Venezuela are under sanctions, other ships carrying the country’s oil and crude oil from Iran and Russia have not been sanctioned, and some companies, most notably US Chevron CVX.N, transport Venezuelan oil with their own authorized ships.

China is the largest buyer of Venezuelan crude, accounting for about 4 percent of its imports, and shipments in December are on track to average more than 600,000 barrels per day, analysts said.

For now, the oil market is well supplied, with millions of barrels of oil in tankers waiting to be unloaded off the coast of China. If the embargo continues for some time, the loss of crude oil supply of approximately one million barrels per day is likely to raise oil prices.

Since the United States imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, traders and refiners buying Venezuelan oil have resorted to a “shadow fleet” of tankers that hide their locations and ships sanctioned to carry Iranian or Russian oil.

Maritime analysts said it was thought the dark or shadow fleet would be subject to possible punitive measures by the United States.

As of this week, about 38 of the more than 70 oil tankers that are part of the shadow fleet in Venezuelan waters are under sanctions from the U.S. Treasury, according to data from TankerTrackers.com. It was stated that at least 15 of them were loaded with crude oil and fuel.

Trump’s pressure campaign on Maduro has included increasing the military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on ships in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, killing at least 100 people.

Trump also said that US ground attacks on the South American country would begin soon.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has claimed that the US military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and seizing control of the OPEC country’s oil resources, the world’s largest crude oil reserves.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Marianna Parraga; Editing by Alison Williams, Sergio Non and Franklin Paul)