More Venezuela-Bound Oil Ships U-Turn Amid US Blockade

(MENAFN- Live Mint) (Bloomberg) -- More oil tankers are turning away from Venezuela as the US threatens to seize vessels transporting oil that helps fund the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

At least seven ships have reversed course or halted at sea, according to ship movements tracked Friday by Bloomberg. That adds to four others that turned away in the immediate aftermath of US forces boarding the vessel Skipper in mid-December.

US President Donald Trump has accused Venezuela of using oil revenues to fund an array of criminal activities, including drug trafficking and terrorism. As part of Trump's pressure campaign, US forces have seized two oil tankers and launched strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats that have killed more than 100 people.

Venezuela has denied the allegations and called the US actions illegal.

In another sign of the escalation, the US struck a facility within Venezuela that was allegedly used to move narcotics. It also sanctioned four Chinese companies and four vessels linked to the trade of Venezuelan crude.

The vessels avoiding the Caribbean waters are able to carry a combined 12.4 million barrels of crude oil. Four of them diverted away, while three others have stalled at sea, data shows. As ships avoid going to Venezuela, its storage tanks are filling to the brim with oil, forcing state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA to shut in some oil wells. Production in the key Orinoco basin, where most of the country's oil is produced, had plunged 25% on Dec. 29 compared with levels seen in mid-December.

Meanwhile, US oil major Chevron Corp continues to lift Venezuelan crude as part of a license obtained with the US Treasury Department.

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