US seizes second oil vessel off Venezuela coast, officials say

According to officials cited by international news organizations, the United States has seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast in international waters.

The incident occurs on Saturday, just days after US President Donald Trump announced a blockade of all Venezuelan oil tankers.

The US has seized a tanker close to Venezuela twice in recent weeks, and this is in response to President Donald Trump’s continued mounting military repression against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Under the condition of anonymity, three officials, who spoke to the Reuters news agency, did not specify the location of the operation but added that the Coast Guard was in charge.

The operations were confirmed by two officials who spoke to The Associated Press. According to one official, the tanker stopped voluntarily and allowed US forces to board it as a “consented boarding” as a result.

Heide Zhou-Castro, a journalist from Washington, claimed that the US government had not provided any official confirmation of the operation.

She said, “We are still waiting for confirmation from the White House and the Pentagon regarding the details, including which ship, where it was located, and whether or not this ship was subject to US sanctions.”

Exports have fallen sharply.

There has been a successful embargo in place since US forces last week seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuelan coast. Millions of barrels of oil have been loaded with loaded vessels that have instead been flown into Venezuelan waters without risk of being seize.

Venezuelan crude exports have fallen significantly since the first seizure.

While many vessels carrying Venezuelan oil are subject to sanctions, others from Iran and Russia are not, and some companies, particularly US’ Chevron, transport Venezuelan oil on their own vetted vessels.

According to analysts, China is the biggest importer of Venezuelan crude, which accounts for about 4% of its imports. In December, shipments are projected to average more than 600,000 barrels per day, according to analysts.

The oil market is currently well-supplied, and millions of barrels of it are waiting to be reloaded on Chinese tankers off the coast.

Oil prices are likely to rise if the embargo is lifted for a while as a result of the loss of nearly a million barrels of crude oil per day.

More than 200 military strikes on ships in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela have resulted in at least 100 fatalities as part of Trump’s pressure campaign against Maduro.

Trump has also stated that US land attacks on South America will soon begin.

According to Maduro, the US military expansion is intended to overthrow him and take control of the OPEC nation’s oil resources, which are the largest crude reserves in the world.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned Trump against a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Venezuela were to be “armed.”

Lula reiterated his opposition to US actions toward Venezuela at a summit of the South American Mercosur bloc, stating that it would set off a “dangerous precedent for the world.”

Source: Aljazeera