Venezuela’s oil exports fall sharply after US forces seize tanker off coast | Nicolas Maduro News
Tanker movements in and out of Venezuelan waters are almost blocked after the United States seized the ship and fuel cargo.
Venezuela’s oil exports have fallen since the United States this week seized an oil tanker off the country’s coast and imposed new sanctions on shipping companies doing business with the troubled Latin American country.
Tanker movements in and out of Venezuelan waters are almost at a standstill, Reuters news agency reported Friday, after the United States said it would seize more ships as part of its military pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
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Wednesday’s seizure of the Skipper tanker marked the first U.S. capture of a cargo of Venezuelan oil since Washington imposed sanctions on Caracas in 2019. It also comes amid a U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean that appears designed to oust Maduro from power.
Threats of additional seizures have now left the tankers – loaded with around 11 million barrels of oil and fuel – stranded in Venezuelan waters and fearful of venturing further, according to data and documents reviewed by Reuters.
Only tankers chartered by U.S. oil giant Chevron have left ports and sailed international waters carrying Venezuelan crude since the Skipper’s seizure, according to Reuters. Chevron has U.S. government authorization to operate in Venezuela through joint ventures with state oil company PDVSA and can export its oil to the United States.
Chevron confirmed this week that it was operating in Venezuela “without interruption and in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations,” according to Reuters, and that it had exported two cargoes of Venezuelan heavy crude to the United States since the Skipper’s seizure.
As the Skipper was transported to Houston, Texas, on Friday to unload its confiscated fuel cargo, Trump reiterated that the U.S. military would begin conducting ground strikes against drug trafficking targets in Latin America.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said U.S. forces — who have been attacking ships in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean for weeks, killing some 90 people — had stopped 96 percent of drug trafficking into the United States by sea.
The United States also claims it attacks drug-trafficking ships but has provided no evidence, while international law experts say the attacks constitute extrajudicial killings carried out by Washington in international waters.
Trump says ‘Maduro’s days are numbered’
The Agencia Venezuela News site reported Friday that Venezuela’s Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, had filed an official complaint with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) denouncing Washington’s “violation of freedom of navigation in the Caribbean.”
Rodriguez spoke at the IMO about the “vulgar theft” of Venezuelan oil by the United States, which constitutes an “illegal international act,” the news agency said. “The Vice President also reiterated that Washington’s threatening actions were not linked to an alleged fight against drug trafficking,” the statement added.
On Monday, Trump said in an interview that Maduro’s “days are numbered,” while refusing to rule out a ground invasion of Venezuela by U.S. forces.
Washington has offered a $50 million reward for Maduro’s capture, accusing the Venezuelan president of leading the so-called “Cartel of the Suns,” which the United States has called a “narcoterrorist” organization.
On Thursday, the US Treasury announced sanctions against three Maduro associates and six shipping companies and six ships involved in transporting Venezuelan oil, a move that could jeopardize his leadership.
“If there are no oil exports, it will affect the foreign exchange market, the country’s imports… There could be an economic crisis,” Elias Ferrer of Orinoco Research, a Venezuelan consulting firm, told the AFP news agency.
“Not just a recession, but also shortages of food and medicine, because we wouldn’t be able to import,” Ferrer said.
Before the tanker’s seizure this week, Venezuela exported some 952,000 barrels per day of crude and fuel in November, about 80% of which went directly and indirectly to China.
