WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a move that raised oil prices and is likely to further inflame tensions between Washington and Caracas.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” Trump said.
Trump has ordered a massive U.S. military build-up in the region, including an aircraft carrier, fighter jets and tens of thousands of troops.
The seizure could signal new and intensifying efforts to go after Venezuela’s oil, the country’s main source of revenue.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to the vessel as a “black-market” oil transport and said the proceeds would fund narcoterrorism. Leavitt said the seizure was justified because the ship was flying under a false flag.
She told reporters that an investigative team was on board and that while the U.S. does intend to seize the oil, it will do so by following the required legal process.
Three U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the operation was led by the U.S. Coast Guard. They did not name the tanker, which country’s flag it was flying, or exactly where the interdiction took place.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the tanker Skipper was believed to have been seized off Venezuela early on Wednesday. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the tanker for what Washington said was involvement in Iranian oil trading when it was called the Adisa.
Guyana’s maritime authority said Wednesday that the supertanker Skipper, carrying Venezuelan oil, which was seized by the U.S., was falsely flying Guyana’s flag.
“The Maritime Administration Department has observed the proliferation and unacceptable trend of the unauthorised use of the Guyana flag by vessels that are not registered in Guyana,” it said in a statement.
The authority, which was informed by the U.S. government of the tanker’s seizure, plans to take action against the unauthorized use of the country’s flag, it added.
Oil futures rose following news of the seizure. After trading in negative territory, Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 27 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $62.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 gained 21 cents, also 0.4%, to close at $58.46 per barrel.
The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Impact on oil?
Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil last month, the third-highest monthly average so far this year, as state-run company PDVSA imported more naphtha to dilute its extra-heavy oil output. Even amid increasing pressure over Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Washington had until now not moved to interfere with the country’s oil flows.
Venezuela has had to deeply discount its crude to its main buyer, China, due to growing competition with sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran.
“This is just yet another geopolitical/sanctions headwind hammering spot supply availability,” Rory Johnston, an analyst with Commodity Context, said.
“Seizing this tanker further inflames those prompt supply concerns but also doesn’t immediately change the situation fundamentally because these barrels were already going to be floating around for a while,” Johnston said.
Increasing pressure on Maduro
Maduro has alleged that the U.S. military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s vast oil reserves.
Since early September, the Trump administration has carried out more than 20 strikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
Experts say the strikes may be illegal, since there has been little or no proof made public that the boats are carrying drugs or that it was necessary to blow them out of the water rather than stop them, seize their cargo and question those on board.
Concerns about the strikes increased this month after reports that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike that killed two survivors.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Wednesday found a broad swath of Americans oppose the U.S. military’s campaign of deadly strikes on the boats, including about one-fifth of President Donald Trump’s Republicans.
Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.
In a sweeping strategy document published last week, Trump said his administration’s foreign policy focus would be on reasserting its dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Liz Hampton, Jonathan Saul, and Matt Spetalnick. Editing by Chris Reese, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)