Venezuela oil exports fall steeply after US forces seize tanker off coast | Nicolas Maduro News

Oil tanker movements in and out of Venezuelan waters come to near standstill after US seizes vessel and fuel cargo.

Venezuela’s oil exports have plummeted since the United States seized an oil tanker off the country’s coast this week and imposed new sanctions on shipping companies doing business with the embattled Latin American country.

Oil tanker movements into and out of Venezuelan waters have almost come to a standstill, the Reuters news agency reported on Friday, after the US announced that it would seize more vessels as part of its military pressure on Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

The seizure on Wednesday of the Skipper tanker marked the first US capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since Washington imposed sanctions on Caracas in 2019. It also comes amid a US military build-up in the Caribbean, which appears designed to remove Maduro from power.

Threats of more seizures have now left tankers – loaded with about 11 million barrels of oil and fuel – stuck in Venezuelan waters and fearing to venture further, according to data and documents reviewed by Reuters.

Only tankers chartered by US oil giant Chevron have left ports and sailed into international waters carrying Venezuelan crude since the seizure of the Skipper, according to Reuters. Chevron has US government authorisation to operate in Venezuela through joint ventures with state-run oil company PDVSA and can export its oil to the US.

Chevron confirmed this week that it was operating in Venezuela “without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable”, according to Reuters, and had exported two cargoes of Venezuelan heavy crude to the US since the seizure of the Skipper.

As the Skipper was taken to Houston, Texas, on Friday for the unloading of its confiscated fuel cargo, Trump reiterated that the US military will start carrying out strikes on land against drug trafficking targets in Latin America.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said that US forces – which have been attacking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean for weeks, killing some 90 people – had stopped 96 percent of drugs trafficked to the US by water.

The US also claims it is attacking drug trafficking vessels but has provided no evidence, while international law experts say the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings by Washington in international waters.

Trump says Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’

The Agencia Venezuela News site reported on Friday that Venezuela’s Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, filed a formal complaint with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) denouncing Washington’s “violation of freedom of navigation in the Caribbean”.

Rodriguez told the IMO of the “vulgar robbery” of Venezuelan oil by the US, which was an “internationally illegal act”,  the news agency said. “The Vice President also reiterated that Washington’s threatening actions are not related to a supposed fight against drug trafficking,” it added.

On Monday, Trump said in an interview that Maduro’s “days are numbered” while also declining to rule out a ground invasion of Venezuela by US forces.

Washington has offered a $50m reward for Maduro’s capture, accusing the Venezuelan president of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns”, which the US has branded a “narco-terrorist” organisation.

On Thursday, the US Treasury announced sanctions on three relatives of Maduro and six shipping companies and six vessels involved in transporting Venezuelan oil, a move that could imperil 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 advisory 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 seizure of the oil tanker this week, Venezuela exported some 952,000 barrels per day of crude and fuel in November, with about 80 percent of those shipments sent directly and indirectly to China.