President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon announced that the United States has seized an oil tanker bound for Cuba as it was sailing off the coast of Venezuela.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker, very large. Largest one ever seized in action. And, other things are happening. So, you’ll be seeing that later. And you’ll be talking about that later with some other people,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said the tanker was seized “for a very good reason,” but provided no further details. Asked what would happen to the ship’s cargo of oil, he replied, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
A U.S. official said the seizure was “led by the Coast Guard and supported by the U.S Navy.”
Another official told the New York Times that the oil tanker is named “Skipper” and was “carrying a false flag of nationality” at the time it was seized.
“It was seized because of its past links to smuggling illicit Iranian oil, not because of ties to the Maduro regime, although it was carrying Venezuelan oil. A federal judge authorized a seizure warrant for the tanker roughly two weeks ago,” the official said.
UK-based maritime risk company Vanguard confirmed on Wednesday there is an oil tanker named Skipper that was sanctioned by the United States for allegedly being involved with the illegal trade of Iranian oil under another name, “Adisa.”
An unnamed source told Politico that “the ship was en route to Cuba, where the state firm Cubametales was planning to sell it to Asian energy brokers.” Due to U.S. sanctions, most of Venezuela’s oil product is sold to China.
Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro did not directly address the tanker seizure in a belligerent speech he gave on Wednesday afternoon. He said during the speech that Venezuela’s military is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire, if necessary.”
International oil prices rose modestly on news of the seizure. Industry analysts said oil buyers would need time to learn the exact circumstances of the seizure, and if any Venezuelan oil was loaded aboard the ship, before calculating the impact on the availability of Venezuelan crude.
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