Several ships carrying oil byproducts from Venezuela sailed from the country’s east coast escorted by the Venezuelan Navy between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, hours after President Trump threatened to impose a “blockade” on sanctioned tankers doing business there, according to ship-tracking data and three people familiar with the matter.
The ships transporting urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products from the Port of José were bound for Asian markets, said two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter. The Venezuelan government imposed the military escort in response to Mr. Trump’s threats, they said.
The third person familiar with the matter, a U.S. official, said Washington was aware of escorts and was considering various courses of action, but declined to provide details. It was not immediately clear whether the ships were on the list of vessels under U.S. sanctions, making them subject to Mr. Trump’s threatened blockade.
Venezuela’s state oil company, known as PDVSA, said in a statement on Wednesday that ships connected to its operations were continuing to sail “with full security, technical support and operational guarantees in legitimate exercise of their right to free navigation.”
Mr. Trump had announced on Tuesday evening that he was imposing a “total and complete blockade” of tankers to and from Venezuela that had violated U.S. trade sanctions. Roughly 40 percent of the tankers that have transported Venezuelan crude in recent years have been placed under U.S. sanctions, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com.
U.S. law enforcement officials last week seized an Asia-bound sanctioned tanker carrying nearly two million barrels of Venezuelan crude, a dramatic escalation of Mr. Trump’s standoff with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whose government derives the bulk of its revenues from oil exports.
U.S. officials have said in private in recent days that additional tankers carrying Venezuelan oil may be seized, without providing additional details.
Mr. Maduro has reacted to the seizure with anger and vowed to keep the oil exports flowing at all cost, said one of the three people.
Nicholas Nehamas and Rebecca F. Elliott contributed reporting.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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