Jan 5 (Reuters) – About a dozen oil tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude and fuel have left the country’s waters since the start of the year in apparent defiance of the U.S. government’s blockade on exports, according to documents seen by Reuters and industry sources including monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a blockade of all sanctioned tankers bound for Venezuela in mid-December, before the dramatic capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. troops in the early hours of Saturday morning. Trump said on Saturday that an oil embargo remained in full force after Maduro’s extraction.
It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. had approved or allowed the shipments. Trump also said on Saturday that Venezuela’s largest customers, including China, would keep receiving oil.
Representatives of the White House, the U.S. State Department, state-run Venezuelan oil company PDVSA and Venezuela’s oil ministry did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The vessels are carrying an estimated volume of 12 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude and fuel oil, according to deals negotiated with PDVSA and satellite images analyzed by TankerTrackers.com.
It was unclear where the vessels were heading. When they loaded in December, the cargoes were mostly destined for Asia. The vessels had been stuck in Venezuelan waters since due to the U.S. blockade.
All the identified vessels are under U.S. sanctions and half of them are supertankers that typically carry Venezuelan crude to China, according to TankerTrackers.com and shipping documents from PDVSA.
A separate group of three smaller ships, also under sanctions, left the country after completing domestic trips or discharging imports, including of Russian naphtha that Venezuela uses to dilute its heavy oil. The tar-like oil needs to be diluted with lighter oil for export.
At least four of the departed tankers left Venezuelan waters on Saturday through a route north of Margarita island after briefly stopping near the country’s maritime border, TankerTrackers.com said after identifying the vessels.
At least four supertankers had been cleared by Venezuelan authorities to leave in dark mode, two sources with knowledge of the departure paperwork told Reuters. That means the vessels sail without their satellite tracking devices switched on, a common ploy for tankers in the global fleet that carry sanctioned oil from Venezuela, Iran and Russia around the world.
CHEVRON RESUMES EXPORTS
Separately, U.S. oil major Chevron resumed exports of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. on Monday after a four-day pause, shipping data showed. A tanker chartered by the company is carrying some 300,000 barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Chevron is the only company authorized by Washington to export Venezuelan crude, exempted from both the embargo and sanctions. No Chevron tankers had sailed since January 1, before the U.S. strike on Venezuela, according to the ship monitoring data.
Venezuelan exports had ground to a halt last week due to the blockade, forcing PDVSA to begin cutting output at the weekend. PDVSA had almost nowhere to store the oil after filling onshore storage and loading ships with crude.
There were more than 20 million barrels bound for export stuck in ships before these departures, according to TankerTrackers.com.
Oil exports are Venezuela’s main source of revenue. The government led by Oil Minister and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez needs cash from exports to finance state spending and to stabilize the country.
Rodriguez, a 56-year-old labor lawyer known for close connections to the private sector and her devotion to the ruling party, is expected to be formally sworn in as interim president later on Monday.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another military strike on Venezuela if authorities do not cooperate with U.S. efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Simon Webb, David Goodman and Nia Williams)
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