Tanker seized off Venezuelan coast heads to US for ‘oil confiscation’, White House confirms

A tanker seized by US forces off the coast of Venezuela will be taken to a United States port so its cargo of oil can be confiscated, the White House says.

“The vessel will go to a US port and the US does intend to seize the oil,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

“However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”

Ms Leavitt said the tanker is currently undergoing “a forfeiture process” and that a US investigative team is aboard questioning the crew.

The Justice Department had obtained a warrant for the vessel because it had been known for “carrying black market, sanctioned oil,” she said.

According to Ms Leavitt, the tanker was a “ghost vessel” previously sanctioned for transporting Iranian oil on the black market.

The tanker, identified as the Skipper and sailing under a false flag, was seized on Wednesday under a US court order due to its past involvement in smuggling Iranian crude, which is sanctioned by Washington, The New York Times reported.

Although the vessel had been associated with Iranian oil, it was carrying Venezuelan crude at the time of the seizure.

Asked whether the Trump Administration planned further ship seizures, Ms Leavitt told reporters she would not speak about future actions but said the US would continue executing the president’s sanctions policies.

“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and ‌illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.

The US has assembled a target list of several more sanctioned tankers for possible seizure, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

A reduction or halt in Venezuelan oil exports, the main generator of revenue for the Venezuelan government, would strain the finances of Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Washington continued to ram up pressure on Caracas by issuing new sanctions targeting Venezuela, imposing curbs on ‍three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, as well as six crude oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them.

The US Treasury Department, in a statement, said it imposed sanctions on six shipping companies moving Venezuelan oil, ‌as well as six crude oil tankers linked to them.

Four of the tankers, including the ‍2002-built H. Constance and the 2003-built Lattafa, are Panama-flagged, with the other two flagged by the Cook Islands and Hong Kong.

The targeted vessels are supertankers that recently loaded crude in Venezuela, according to state oil company PDVSA’s internal shipping documents.

Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, were also hit with sanctions. The two were ‌dubbed the “narco nephews” after their arrest in Haiti in 2015 in a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation.

They were convicted in 2016 on charges that they tried to carry out a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal and sentenced ‍to 18 years in prison, but were released in a 2022 prison swap with Venezuela.

The Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles press inquiries for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maduro alleges the US military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s oil resources.

with Reuters and AP