The United States on Thursday issued new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and on members of President Nicolás Maduro’s family, while taking steps to keep tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil from a large tanker that U.S. forces seized off the country’s coast.
Venezuela’s economy depends on oil and has been hurt by U.S. sanctions, leading Mr. Maduro’s government to smuggle and sell crude through a web of tankers and middlemen. The new sanctions target three nephews of the wife of Mr. Maduro and six shipping companies.
Separately, the Trump administration is seeking the legal authority to seize the oil from the Skipper, a tanker that U.S. forces boarded and took possession of on Wednesday in international waters near Venezuela, according to Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. The oil had come from a state-owned Venezuelan company. American authorities have so far obtained a seizure warrant for the tanker — saying that it had been used in the past to smuggle Iranian oil — but not for the cargo currently on board.
“There is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed,” Ms. Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
Together, the sanctions and the seizure of the Skipper represent a new front in President Trump’s campaign to destabilize Mr. Maduro’s regime. Mr. Trump has accused Mr. Maduro of operating a “narcoterrorist” cartel and has authorized a series of deadly military strikes against boats that he has said, without publicly providing evidence, are smuggling drugs. Many current and former officials in Washington say the military buildup in the region is ultimately aimed at regime change.
The U.S. government’s actions this week most likely will reduce the number of tankers that are willing to load oil in Venezuela, further isolating a country that depends heavily on the revenue it receives from exporting the fossil fuel. But there was little immediate effect on oil prices, which remained around $58 a barrel in the United States. The market is unfazed because Venezuela produces little oil, less than 1 percent of what the world uses.
New details emerged on Thursday about the oil tanker, including about its crew, which is mainly from Russia, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. American authorities have asked the crew to sail the Skipper to the United States, but they have another crew on standby if needed, the official said.
The tanker has a capacity of 2 million barrels. It was loaded nearly full at a Venezuelan port about a month ago, according to data collected by Kpler, a company that monitors global oil shipping. The value of the oil carried by the Skipper amounted to roughly $78 million, said Francisco Rodríguez, an economist at the University of Denver.
The ship may have recently tried to hide its location and disguise its activities, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and photographs, reflecting the shadowy world of smuggling in which it is said to operate.
On Dec. 6, the Skipper conducted a ship-to-ship transfer in the open seas near Curaçao, offloading about 50,000 barrels of oil onto another tanker called the Neptune 6, according to Kpler, as well as TankerTrackers.com, a company that provides similar services.
Neptune 6 is currently headed to Cuba, said Homayoun Falakshahi, Kpler’s head of oil analysis.
The use of U.S. military and law enforcement forces to seize a foreign oil tanker on the high seas is unusual. But the Skipper had been on the radar of the U.S. government for several years, as part of a so-called ghost fleet that smuggles black market oil around the world. Venezuela and Iran have each made extensive use of such ships to smuggle oil and evade international sanctions.
In recent years, the Skipper has sailed the globe transporting oil for both Iran and Venezuela, according to ship tracking data from TankerTrackers.com and Kpler and analysis by The Times.
In 2022, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Skipper, then sailing under a different name, for smuggling illicit Iranian oil. U.S. prosecutors have said Iran uses the profits from oil sales to fund terrorism. That designation allowed the United States to seize the vessel on Wednesday.
“The Department of Justice requested and was approved for a warrant to seize a vessel because it’s a sanctioned shadow vessel known for carrying black-market sanctioned oil” for Iran, Ms. Leavitt said at the White House on Thursday.
Despite the legal basis for the seizure relating to Iran, U.S. officials have made clear that their actions were designed to pressure Venezuela and that they could seize more tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in the future.
Among the moves by the Trump administration to squeeze Venezuela are the sanctions announced on Thursday.
Two of the Maduro nephews who were put under sanctions were arrested in Haiti in 2015 as they were finalizing a deal to transport a shipment of cocaine to the United States. The men, whom the Treasury referred to as “narco-nephews,” were convicted in 2016 on drug trafficking charges but were granted clemency in 2022 by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and returned to Venezuela, where, according to the Treasury Department, they continued trafficking drugs.
The sanctions also hit Venezuela’s economy by blacklisting six shipping companies — Myra Marine Limited, Arctic Voyager Incorporated, Poweroy Investment Limited, Ready Great Limited, Sino Marine Services Limited and Full Happy Limited — that have vessels transporting Venezuelan oil.
The targeted ships were “blocked” by the Treasury Department, impeding them from doing international business, although it was not clear if the U.S. planned to seize them.
Reporting was contributed by Simon Romero in Bogotá, Colombia; Christiaan Triebert and Rebecca F. Elliott in New York and Eric Schmitt in Washington.
Nicholas Nehamas is a Washington correspondent for The Times, focusing on the Trump administration and its efforts to transform the federal government.
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