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The US has seized a sixth tanker in the Caribbean Sea in its ongoing efforts to control exports of Venezuelan oil, officials say.
The vessel, Veronica, was boarded in a predawn operation “without incident” as it was defying President Donald Trump’s “quarantine of sanctioned vessels”, said the US military.
“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” the Southern Command said.
Since the US military strikes on Venezuela and seizure of its president Nicolás Maduro this month, Trump has said he plans to tap into the country’s huge oil reserves.
“The Veronica is the latest tanker operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” US Southern Command said in a post on social media.
It also posted a video showing Marines and sailors boarding the tanker.
Veronica, a crude oil tanker sailing under a Guyanese flag, departed empty from Venezuelan waters in early January, according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.
The International Maritime Organization’s database shows the vessel was previously registered in Russia under different names.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on social media that Thursday’s tanker seizure was carried out with “close coordination with our colleagues” in the military as well as the state and justice departments.
“Our heroic Coast Guard men and women once again ensured a flawlessly executed operation, in accordance with international law,” Noem added.
It suggests Washington’s crackdown on the so-called dark fleet, comprising more than 1,000 vessels that transport sanctioned oil, will continue as the US works with Venezuela’s interim government to control the country’s oil sales.
It also comes a day after an American official said the US had completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil, valued at $500m (£373m).
Trump last week asked oil executives at the White House to invest $100bn in Venezuela’s energy infrastructure. They said significant changes would be needed make the country an attractive investment.
The seizures on tankers has had a significant impact on Venezuela’s oil exports.
In the month of January, the loadings of crude oil onto ships have fallen to about half of normal levels, the Wall Street Journal reported citing shipping-analytics provider Kpler.
The only ships that are loading crude at Venezuela’s ports are bound for the US and for Venezuelan refineries, some of which are not close to the oil fields, the company said.
Kpler estimated that as of 13 January, around 15.5 million barrels of crude oil were on 17 tankers in Venezuelan waters, not including ships already headed to the US. If Trump wants to widen the crackdown, the US could take control of it, Kpler said.
The latest tanker seizure came just hours ahead of a meeting between Trump and Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the White House.
Trump has previously described her as a “freedom fighter”, but rejected the notion of appointing her to lead Venezuela after Maduro’s removal, arguing that she lacks sufficient domestic backing.
A Venezuelan government envoy, too, is expected to travel to Washington on Thursday to meet US officials and take initial steps toward reopening the country’s embassy, the New York Times reported.
“The emissary, Félix Plasencia, would be the first representative of the country’s ruling political movement, known as chavismo, to visit the American capital in an official capacity in years,” the newspaper wrote.
