The ship intercepted by the United States in Venezuelan waters earlier is a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker that was docked in Venezuela, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“The U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the War Department, seized an oil tanker that was docked in Venezuela,” Noem said in a social media post, describing it as “a dawn raid.”
Other U.S. officials said the Navy assisted in the operation. A video released with Noem’s statement showed a person descending a rope from a helicopter onto the deck of an oil tanker called Centuries.
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The ship loaded crude oil at the Jose terminal in Venezuela after sailing through the Caribbean. The vessel had been fully loaded since December 11 with two million barrels of crude oil. In the following days, satellite images showed the boat was sailing off Grenada on a route towards Asia.
The ship was first tracked carrying Venezuelan oil to China in April 2020 and was involved in ship-to-vessel transfers in Malaysia. It’s unclear whether the U.S. planned to take possession of the ship with its cargo, as officials said it planned to do with the Skipper.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to finance narcoterrorism in the region,” Noem said. “We will find you and we will stop you.”
A senior U.S. official said the administration’s strategy is to seize more oil tankers, with the exception of those chartered by Chevron, which has a U.S. license to operate in Venezuela. He said the Navy and Coast Guard have identified other suspicious vessels.
This was the second action of its kind by the US in recent weeks and occurred after US President Donald Trump announced last Tuesday, the 16th, that he was ordering a “total and complete blockade” against oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela that are under US sanctions. Source: Dow Jones Newswires
