The United States says it's handing over a tanker to Venezuela that it seized earlier this month, according to two U.S. officials, marking the first known case of President Donald Trump’s administration returning such a vessel, Reuters reported.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the tanker being transferred to Venezuelan authorities is the Panama-flagged supertanker M/T Sophia. They did not give a reason for the decision.
The U.S. Coast Guard, which leads interdiction and seizure operations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles all press queries for the government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move comes as Washington continues enforcement actions against vessels linked to Venezuelan oil exports under U.S. sanctions. In recent weeks, U.S. forces have seized several tankers suspected of transporting Venezuelan crude in violation of those sanctions.
Two previously seized Venezuela-linked tankers, including M/T Sophia, were recently seen anchored near Puerto Rico after disappearing from tracking systems, highlighting the scale of U.S. maritime operations targeting what officials describe as a “shadow fleet” moving sanctioned oil.
The United States has imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela since 2019, with the aim of restricting oil exports and pressuring Caracas over governance and security concerns.
The Sophia was carrying oil when it was interdicted on 7 January by the Coast Guard and U.S. military forces. At the time, the administration said the Sophia, which is under sanctions, was a "stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker."
One of the sources did not know if the Sophia still had oil on board.
Trump has focused his foreign policy in Latin America on Venezuela, initially aiming to push Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. After failing to find a diplomatic solution, Trump ordered U.S. forces to fly into the country to grab him and his wife in a daring overnight raid on 3 January.
Since then, Trump has said the U.S. plans to control Venezuela's oil resources indefinitely as it seeks to rebuild the country's dilapidated oil industry in a $100 billion plan.
Along with most tankers under Western sanctions or part of the so-called shadow fleet, many of the Venezuela-linked tankers seized were built more than 20 years ago and pose hazards to shipping because they lack safety certification and adequate insurance, experts said.
That means that if they have a collision or oil spill, establishing insurance claims or liability is very difficult to impossible, shipping and insurance industry sources said.
Dubai-run GMS has applied for a U.S. license to buy and scrap ships seized by the U.S. government linked to Venezuelan oil trading.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused U.S. government and Israel-aligned actors of manipulating energy markets to promote the war with Ir...
Russian strikes on the Kyiv region overnight killed 37 people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Zelenskyy added tha...
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for greater unity across the Islamic world, saying Türkiye is seeking to strengthen allianc...
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remains disproportionately small compared with their population, strategic location and resources.
Iran is setting conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including an end to the war, the lifting of the U.S. blockade and sanctions. At the same time, Washington is stepping up economic pressure on Tehran through what the White House calls “Operation Economic Outcast.”
Mail sorting centres used by Nova Poshta, Ukraine's largest private postal company, were destroyed in Russian strikes overnight, the firm said. Elsewhere, four people were injured after drones struck an apartment building in Sevastopol, Crimea, according to the Moscow-installed governor.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused U.S. government and Israel-aligned actors of manipulating energy markets to promote the war with Iran.
Russian strikes on the Kyiv region overnight killed 37 people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Zelenskyy added that the Ukrainian capital was under "virtually nonstop attack" from drones.
Russian strikes on the Kyiv region overnight killed 37 people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. Zelenskyy added that the Ukrainian capital was under "virtually nonstop attack" from drones.
The U.S. is to take control of a fifth of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, President Donald Trump announced on Friday. He said that Washington had secured control of more than 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s reserves through a partnership with private business.
Walmart has reached a settlement with the U.S. government over allegations that its pharmacies unlawfully dispensed opioid prescriptions, helping fuel the country's opioid epidemic.
Greenland’s opposition parties have called for Denmark to be held accountable before the International Court of Justice over a decades-long campaign in which women and girls were fitted with contraceptive devices, often without their consent.
Icelanders will vote on Saturday, 29 August, on whether to resume negotiations with the European Union, in a referendum that could reopen the country’s long-debated membership question.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment