The United States has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, a move that has driven up oil prices and drastically increased tensions between Washington and Caracas.
“We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a big oil tanker, very big, the biggest ever, in fact, and other things are happening,” said Trump, who has been pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to resign.
Asked what would happen to oil, Trump said: ‘We’ll keep it, I think.’
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Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela. That incident was the first known action against an oil tanker since he ordered a massive military buildup in the region. The US carried out attacks on suspected drug trafficking vessels, which raised concerns among parliamentarians and legal experts.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on
A 45-second video posted by Bondi showed two helicopters approaching a vessel and armed individuals in camouflage rappelling onto it.
Trump administration officials did not provide the name of the vessel. British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the oil tanker Skipper was believed to have been seized off Venezuela in the early hours of Wednesday. The US imposed sanctions on the tanker for what Washington said was its involvement in the Iranian oil trade when it was called Adisa.
The Skipper left Venezuela’s main oil port, Jose, between Dec. 4 and 5 after loading about 1.1 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude oil, according to satellite information analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
Oil futures rose following news of the seizure.
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This Wednesday, Maduro spoke at a commemoration of a military battle, without addressing information about the seizure of the oil tanker.
