The only oil tankers to leave Venezuela since the arrest of its former leader, Nicolás Maduro, have been bound for the U.S., according to a new report by shipping intelligence firm Kpler.
There were two ships this year that were headed to other countries before Maduro’s Jan. 3 capture by the U.S.
One of these tankers, which was partially filled with sanctioned oil, went out of Venezuela’s main export terminal and toward Iran on New Year’s Day, The Wall Street Journal, wrote. Another vessel with Venezuelan oil was headed to China on Jan. 2.
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Klepr said these are apparently the last two cargoes filled with illicit oil to leave Venezuela. Any oil that left over the next 10 days was all going to the U.S. or to be used in Venezuela’s refineries.
Venezuela’s oil exports haved dropped 75% from what they were under Maduro’s rule.
The oil going to the U.S. went to places such as Pascagoula, Mississippi, as well as oil-processing hubs in Corpus Christi, Texas and St. Charles Parish in Louisiana, Klepr said.
Still, Kpler estimates, there are almost 48 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that are outside the country’s waters and not set to go to the U.S. in licensed trade.
U.S. forces has seized six sanctioned oil tankers since December. Their latest seizure was on Thursday, when a Coast Guard tactical team boarded Motor Tanker Veronica in the Caribbean.
Registration data showed the ship also went by “Galileo,” and was owned and managed by a company in Russia, The Associated Press wrote. A tanker with the same registration number sailed under the name “Pegas” as well. Pegas was sanctioned by the Treasury Department which said it was associated with a Russian company that moved cargoes of sanctioned oil.
Some of these commandeerred tankers are being taken to Texas, the WSJ wrote. Two of the ships were anchored off Galveston Island, near Houston. Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66 and Valero all operate there.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced a deal with interim authorities in Venezuela, where they will turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S. It is to be sold at market price, Trump said.
An administration official quoted by several news outlets said last week that the U.S. completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil, worth about $500 million. There are more sales expected in the future, the official said.
