Washington is gearing up for a wave of tanker seizures off Venezuela as the Trump administration revives and escalates sanctions enforcement against the country’s oil trade.
A day after announcing the dramatic capture of a stateless VLCC (pictured) carrying sanctioned Venezuelan crude, the US treasury on Thursday sanctioned six additional VLCCs and their operating companies – the first ships targeted for Venezuelan oil movements since Trump’s final day in office in January 2021.
The newly sanctioned vessels, all linked to what US officials call “deceptive and unsafe shipping practices”, are accused of providing financial lifelines to Nicolás Maduro’s “corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.
“Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said. “Nicolás Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people. These sanctions undo the Biden administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro.”
The US military build-up in the Caribbean is the biggest since 1962’s Cuban missile crisis
The White House underscored on Thursday that the crackdown is nowhere near finished. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US “will continue executing the president’s sanctions policies”.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.
On the seized VLCC, Leavitt confirmed: “As you know, the vessel will go to a US port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil. However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”
Multiple US officials told Reuters more seizures are on the way. “Further direct interventions … are expected in the coming weeks targeting ships carrying Venezuelan oil that may also have transported oil from other countries targeted by US sanctions, such as Iran,” the agency reported, citing sources familiar with the plans.
One source added that the US has already drawn up a target list of additional sanctioned tankers.
More than 80 vessels were loaded or waiting to load off Venezuela on Wednesday, including over 30 already under US sanctions, according to TankerTrackers.com – offering ample targets for what is shaping up to be the most aggressive US maritime enforcement campaign in years. The US has deployed 15,000 troops and sent warships to the Caribbean in the biggest military build-up there since 1962’s Cuban missile crisis.
