Venezuelan navy escorts vessels after Trump’s blockade threat, setting up potential US confrontation

Venezuela’s Government has ordered its navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products from port, escalating the risk of a confrontation with the United States after President Donald Trump ordered a “blockade” aimed at the country’s oil industry.

Several ships sailed from the country’s east coast with a naval escort between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to three people familiar with the matter. The vessels departed just hours after Mr Trump said he intended to blockade sanctioned oil tankers that do business with Venezuela.

The ships — transporting urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products — left the Port of José bound for Asian markets, said two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter. The Venezuelan government imposed the military escort in response to Mr Trump’s threats, they said.

Vessels travelling with the escort did not appear on a current list of US sanctioned ships, making it unclear whether they could be subject to Mr Trump’s blockade. Mr Trump said Tuesday he was focused on oil tankers that have violated US trade sanctions.

The third person familiar with the matter, a US official, said Washington was aware of escorts and was considering various courses of action, but declined to provide details.

Venezuela’s state oil company, known as PDVSA, said in a statement Wednesday that ships connected to its operations were continuing to sail “with full security, technical support and operational guarantees in legitimate exercise of their right to free navigation.”

Mr Trump had announced Tuesday evening that he was imposing a “total and complete blockade” of tankers to and from Venezuela that had violated US trade sanctions. Roughly 40 per cent of the tankers that have transported Venezuelan crude in recent years have been placed under US sanctions, according to Samir Madani, cofounder of TankerTrackers.com.

US law enforcement officials last week seized an Asia-bound sanctioned tanker carrying nearly 2 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, a major escalation of Mr Trump’s standoff with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whose government derives the bulk of its revenues from oil exports.

US officials have said in private in recent days that additional tankers carrying Venezuelan oil may be seized, without providing additional details.

Mr Maduro has reacted to the seizure with anger and vowed to keep the oil exports flowing at all cost, said one of the three people.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company