Environment
Trump willing to seize more oil tankers off Venezuela coast, White House official says
President Donald Trump is willing to seize more oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, a White House official told CNBC on Thursday.
The U.S. seized a tanker on Wednesday that had allegedly transported oil from Venezuela to Iran. The action comes as Trump escalates pressure on President Nicolás Maduro.
The White House official told CNBC that the Trump administration is always looking to enforce the law.
The oil market has been focused on Ukraine peace talks and so far is not indicating a risk of a major supply disruption. U.S. crude oil fell 86 cents, or 1.47%, to close at $57.60 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent settled at $61.28, down 93 cents, or 1.49%.
Sources told Reuters earlier that U.S. is expected to target more ships transporting Venezuelan crude in the coming weeks. The Treasury Department updated its Venezuela sanctions list on Thursday to include more than a dozen additional people, companies and tankers.
The tanker seized on Wednesday was a Very Large Crude Carrier, or VLCC, identified as the Skipper, Matt Smith, head U.S. analyst at energy consulting firm Kpler, told CNBC. It was loaded covertly with 1.1 million barrels in mid-November and appeared on course for Cuba, Smith said.
The tanker will be taken to a U.S. port and the oil will be seized, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed,” Leavitt said.
The tanker seizure comes amid a major U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean. The Trump administration has launched a series of deadly strikes in recent months on boats that it says were trafficking drugs to the U.S. Those strikes have been the subject of intense scrutiny in Congress over their legality.
Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It is exporting about 749,000 barrels per day this year, with at least half that oil going to China, according to data from Kpler.