Venezuela's oil exports shrivel as US seizes tanker off its coast

Caracas [Venezuela], December 13 : Venezuela's oil exports have plummeted since the US seized an oil tanker off the country's coast this week and imposed new sanctions on shipping companies doing business with the embattled Latin American country, Al Jazeera reported.

Oil tanker movements into and out of Venezuelan waters have almost come to a standstill, Al Jazeera's sources stated, after the US announced that it would seize more vessels as part of its military pressure on Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

The seizure on Wednesday of the Skipper tanker marked the first US capture of Venezuelan oil cargo since Washington imposed sanctions on Caracas in 2019. It also comes amid a US military build-up in the Caribbean, which appears designed to remove Maduro from power.

Threats of more seizures have now left tankers - loaded with about 11 million barrels of oil and fuel - stuck in Venezuelan waters and fearing to venture further, according to data and documents cited by Al Jazeera's sources.

Only tankers chartered by US oil giant Chevron have left ports and sailed into international waters carrying Venezuelan crude since the seizure of the Skipper, according to Reuters. Chevron has US government authorisation to operate in Venezuela through joint ventures with state-run oil company PDVSA and can export its oil to the US.

Chevron confirmed this week that it was operating in Venezuela "without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable," and had exported two cargoes of Venezuelan heavy crude to the US since the seizure of the Skipper.

As the Skipper was taken to Houston, Texas, on Friday for the unloading of its confiscated fuel cargo, Trump reiterated that the US military will start carrying out strikes on land against drug trafficking targets in Latin America, as per Al Jazeera.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said that US forces - which have been attacking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean for weeks, killing some 90 people - had stopped 96 percent of drugs trafficked to the US by water.

The US also claims it is attacking drug trafficking vessels but has provided no evidence, while international law experts say the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings by Washington in international waters.

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