US intercepts oil tanker off Venezuelan coast: Officials

Highlights:

• US intercepts vessel amid military build-up near Venezuela
• Venezuelan crude exports fall sharply after US tanker seizure
• Captured vessel believed to be part of Venezuela's "dark" fleet of tankers
• Maduro claims US aims to overthrow him and control Venezuela's oil reserves

The United States has intercepted an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Saturday, a move that comes just days after US President Donald Trump announced a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

It's the second time in recent weeks that the United States has gone after a tanker near Venezuela amid a large US military build-up in the region.

Noem confirmed the Coast Guard intercepted a tanker that was last docked in Venezuela.

"The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region," she said in a statement posted to social media. "We will find you, and we will stop you."

Three US officials earlier Saturday had told Reuters that the vessel had been intercepted.

The Coast Guard and Pentagon referred questions to the White House.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the tanker contained sanctioned oil.

"It was a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime," she wrote on X.

Venezuela's oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The Venezuelan government called the tanker interception a "serious act of international piracy."

Venezuela "denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel transporting oil, as well as the forced disappearance of its crew, committed by military personnel of the United States of America in international waters," the statement said.

Caracas said the actions will be reported to the United Nations Security Council, other multilateral organizations and governments.

British maritime risk management company Vanguard said the vessel was believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.

Jeremy Paner, a partner at Washington, DC, law firm Hughes Hubbard and a former OFAC investigator, said the vessel has not been sanctioned by the US.

"The seizure of a vessel that is not sanctioned by the US marks a further increase in Trump's pressure on Venezuela," Paner said. "It also runs counter to Trump's statement that the US would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers."

Trump calls for 'complete blockade'

Trump on Tuesday said he was ordering "A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela."

In the days since US forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, there has been an effective embargo in place, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.

Since the first seizure, Venezuelan crude exports have fallen sharply.

While many vessels picking up oil in Venezuela are under sanctions, others transporting the country's oil and crude from Iran and Russia have not been sanctioned, and some companies, particularly the US' Chevron, transport Venezuelan oil in their own authorized ships.

China is the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude, which accounts for roughly 4% of its imports, with shipments in December on track to average more than 600,000 barrels per day, analysts have said.

For now, the oil market is well supplied and there are millions of barrels of oil on tankers off the coast of China waiting to offload. If the embargo stays in place for some time, then the loss of nearly a million barrels a day of crude supply is likely to push oil prices higher.

Since the US imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, traders and refiners buying Venezuelan oil have resorted to a "shadow fleet" of tankers that disguise their location and to vessels sanctioned for transporting Iranian or Russian oil.

The dark or shadow fleet is considered exposed to possible punitive measures from the US, shipping analysts have said.

Centuries, which loaded in Venezuela under the false name "Crag" and is part of the dark fleet, was carrying some 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan Merey crude oil bound for China, according to internal documents from state oil company PDVSA, the oil's seller.

The vessel departed Venezuelan waters on Wednesday after being briefly escorted by the Venezuelan navy, according to company sources and satellite images obtained by TankerTrackers.com.

The crude was bought by Satau Tijana Oil Trading, one of many intermediaries involved in PDVSA's sales to Chinese independent refiners, the documents showed.

As of this week, of more than 70 oil tankers in Venezuelan waters that are part of the shadow fleet, around 38 are under sanctions by the US Treasury, according to data from TankerTrackers.com. Of those, at least 15 are loaded with crude and fuel, it added.

Trump's pressure campaign on Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has included a ramped-up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, which have killed at least 100 people.

Trump has also said that US land strikes on the South American country will soon start.

Venezuela's Maduro has alleged that the US military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation's oil resources, which are the world's largest crude reserves.