A U.S. Navy vessel is pursuing several sanctioned oil tankers after they left Venezuelan waters and appeared to coordinate a push across the Atlantic, Newsmax National Security Correspondent Carla Babb reported, citing a U.S. official speaking to Newsmax.
"I have just confirmed by a U.S. official speaking to Newsmax that a U.S. Navy vessel is in pursuit of several sanctioned oil tankers, at least four, that appear to be coordinating a breakaway across the Atlantic Ocean after leaving Venezuelan waters earlier this week," Babb said on Friday.
The U.S. on Friday was in the process of seizing the Olina tanker in the Caribbean near Trinidad in the fifth such interdiction of ships in recent weeks as part of Washington's efforts to control Venezuelan oil exports.
It was not clear if the latest reported pursuit was related to the news about the Olina.
The reported pursuit comes as about a dozen tankers carrying Venezuelan crude oil and fuel have departed the country's waters in "dark mode" since the start of the year, according to shipping documents reviewed by Reuters and industry sources, including monitoring service TankerTrackers.com, reports Marine Link.
At least four of the departed tankers left Venezuelan waters Saturday via a route north of Margarita Island after briefly stopping near the country's maritime border, based on satellite imagery.
A source familiar with the departure paperwork told Reuters that at least four supertankers had been cleared by Venezuelan authorities to leave in dark mode.
Those movements have raised questions about whether shippers are testing the limits of a strict U.S. blockade imposed by President Donald Trump before U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas early Saturday. Trump said Saturday that the oil embargo remained in full force after Maduro's removal.
All of the identified vessels are under sanctions, and most are supertankers that typically carry Venezuelan crude to China, according to TankerTrackers.com and PDVSA shipping documents cited in the report.
It was not immediately clear whether the departures were intended to defy the U.S. blockade. While Trump said the embargo had not been lifted, he added that Venezuela's largest customers, including China, would keep receiving oil, according to the report.
The tanker at the center of the dramatic Atlantic chase is the Marinera, formerly the Bella-1, which U.S. forces, supported by U.K. aerial surveillance, boarded and seized the Marinera in the North Atlantic near Iceland on Wednesday.
Maritime tracking services also reported a broader, coordinated effort by sanctioned vessels to break the U.S. blockade.
The M/T Sophia, identified as part of the so-called "dark fleet," was seized by U.S. Southern Command in the Caribbean around the same time as the Marinera.
Two other sanctioned tankers, the Aria and the Tia, were tracked earlier this week crossing the English Channel toward Russia, suggesting they were part of the same group attempting to exit the Western Hemisphere, reports The Guardian.
Since the December seizure of the tanker Skipper, an estimated 19 sanctioned vessels have reportedly sought to shift to Russian registry, a tactic used by the shadow fleet to reduce the risk of U.S. interception.
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