Trump: We seized oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela

(Patria) - The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said, increasing tensions with Caracas in a move that has raised oil prices, Reuters reported.

"We just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a big tanker, very big, the biggest ever, actually, and other things are happening," Trump said. When asked what would happen to the oil, Trump said: "We're keeping it, I guess."

The seizure could signal an intensification of efforts to move against Venezuelan oil, the country's main source of revenue. This is the first known action against an oil tanker since Trump ordered the buildup of the US military in the region and carried out attacks on suspected drug ships, operations that have raised concerns among democratic lawmakers and legal experts.

Three US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation was led by the US Coast Guard. They did not name the tanker, the flag it was sailing under, or where exactly the seizure took place.

British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the tanker Skipper is believed to have been seized off Venezuela early on Wednesday. The United States has imposed sanctions on the tanker for, as Washington stated, involvement in Iranian oil trade when it was called Adisa.

Skipper left Venezuela's main oil port of Jose between December 4 and 5 after loading heavy Merey oil from Venezuela, according to satellite information analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal PDVSA shipping data.

Oil futures rose after the news of the seizure. After trading in negative territory, Brent crude futures rose by 27 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $62.21 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose by 21 cents, also 0.4%, to settle at $58.46 a barrel.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro spoke on Wednesday at a march commemorating a military battle, without commenting on reports of the tanker seizure.

Impact on oil?

Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) last month, the third-highest monthly average so far this year, as state-owned company PDVSA imported more oil to dilute its heavy crude production. Even amid increasing pressure on Maduro, Washington has not yet acted to interfere with the country's oil flows.

Venezuela has had to significantly lower the price of its crude oil for its main customer, China, due to growing competition from sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran.
Chevron, a partner of state-owned oil company PDVSA, said on Wednesday that its operations in the country are normal and continue without interruption.
The company, responsible for all US exports of Venezuelan crude oil, increased its crude oil exports to the US last month to about 150,000 barrels per day from 128,000 barrels per day in October.

Increasing pressure on Maduro

Maduro claims that the goal of the US military buildup is to overthrow him and take control of the vast oil reserves of this OPEC member country.
Since the beginning of September, the Trump administration has carried out more than twenty strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing more than eighty people.

Experts say the strikes could be illegal, as little or no evidence has been released that the ships were carrying drugs or that it was necessary to blow them up instead of stopping them, seizing their cargo, and interrogating those on board.

Concerns about the strikes have risen this month after reports that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike in which two survivors were killed.

Trump has repeatedly mentioned the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela.

In a comprehensive strategic document released last week, Trump said that his administration's foreign policy focus would be on re-establishing dominance in the Western Hemisphere.