Frank wrote Today at 9:17am:




The operation was led by the US Coast Guard with the assistance of Navy forces that have been deployed to the Caribbean, said two Pentagon officials with knowledge of the matter.

The official said the move was a warning to other tankers waiting to dock and load up Venezuelan crude. Maritime tracking data show around a dozen of the Venezuelan coast, but the official said there are more with their Automatic Identification System turned off to avoid detection.

The US has sanctions in place that prohibit companies from trading Venezuelan oil, though it has given exemptions to some companies, including Chevron, which this summer received a narrowed license to operate in the country. Mr Trump has warned that he will level hefty tariffs on countries that buy oil from Caracas.Asked about the seizure at the White House, Mr Trump joked that journalists should follow the tanker with a helicopter and said he assumed the US would keep the oil. He also said that information about the ship’s owner would be forthcoming.

Brokers in Singapore told The Wall Street Journal a tanker called the Skipper was seized off Venezuela early on Wednesday. The tanker, formerly called the Adisa, had been sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for carrying Iranian crude. Venezuela has exported an average of 750,000 barrels a day this year with half of it going to China, according to energy consultants Kpler.

The oil is mostly moved by around 800 old and uninsured tankers with obscure ownerships that popped up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to move sanctioned Russian crude to China and India.