The Government of Venezuela reported this morning of the departure from its country of a ship from the American company Chevron loaded with crude oil, in the midst of tensions with Washington, which today is carrying out an “active pursuit” to intercept a third, as part of its military deployment near the South American country.
The Executive Vice President and Minister of Hydrocarbons, , announced on her Telegram channel the departure of the Canopus Voyager ship “with Venezuelan oil bound for the United States”, in “strict adherence to the rules and in compliance with the commitments assumed” by her nation’s oil industry.
Despite the tension between Washington and Caracas, Chevron operates in Venezuela associated with the state-owned PDVSA thanks to a license from the Treasury Department that exempts it from sanctions imposed on Venezuelan crude oil. “Venezuela has always been and will continue to be respectful of national and international legality. Nothing and no one will stop our country on its path of advancement and victory!” added Rodríguez, who shared a video showing the ship.
On Saturday, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, reported the confiscation of the Panamanian-flagged tanker Centuries, which according to the White House, was a “false flag” vessel part of “the Venezuelan ghost fleet to traffic stolen oil and finance Maduro’s narco-terrorist regime.”
White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly insisted that the ship “was transporting oil from (Venezuelan state-owned) PDVSA, a sanctioned company,” given reports that the confiscated tanker is not part of the US blacklist.
The context
This is the second confiscated, after on December 10, Washington seized the sanctioned ship Skipper and the crude oil it was transporting.
Days later, the president of the United States, announced a total blockade of the entry and exit of this country to oil tankers sanctioned by the United States Government, within the pressure exerted on the Government of , which Washington accuses of leading a drug trafficking network.
Caracas rejected the two seizures as “theft” and insists that it will take “all appropriate actions.”
Since this Sunday, the United States has been carrying out an operation to intercept a third oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea, near the coast of Venezuela.
Maduro called these confiscations “piracy by privateers” and said his country “has spent 25 weeks denouncing, confronting and defeating a campaign of aggression that ranges from psychological terrorism to privateers who have assaulted oil tankers.”
