Madrid/The port of Freeport, in Houston, is preparing to receive next Sunday the 28th Canopus Voyager, loaded “with Venezuelan oil heading to the United States”, in “strict adherence to the regulations and in compliance with the commitments assumed” by the oil industry. This was announced by the Executive Vice President and Minister of Hydrocarbons, Delcy Rodríguez, this Sunday, while claiming Venezuela’s responsibility for its obligations.
“Venezuela has always been and will continue to be respectful of national and international legality. Nothing and no one will stop our country on its path of advancement and victory!” said Rodríguez, who shared a video that shows the ship and a member of the crew who specifies the quantity – 500,000 barrels – and the type of fuel –special Blend hammock – that moves.
The departure of this tanker, flying the Bahamas flag, occurred on Saturday, one day before the United States began an “active pursuit” against another oil tanker loaded with PDVSA crude whose situation remains confusing. It is about the Bella-1with the Guyanese flag, and according to CNN Coast Guard personnel attempted to board it this Sunday, but the vessel continued sailing, leading to the chase.
“The US Coast Guard is actively pursuing a sanctioned vessel from the ghost fleet that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” at least two US officials told the channel. “You are sailing under a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”
He Bella-1sanctioned for his links with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, was heading to Venezuela yesterday to collect oil when it was ordered to be confiscated. Furthermore, on Saturday the same thing had been done with the Centuriesa Panama-registered tanker that was also part of the ghost fleet used to transport sanctioned Venezuelan crude. According to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, this ship was used to “traffic stolen oil and finance Maduro’s narco-terrorist regime.”
The concept began to be coined last week by US President Donald Trump, and the White House defended it through Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who on Wednesday said that the 1976 nationalization by Caracas was “the biggest theft” in American history.
“American sweat, ingenuity and labor created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property,” wrote Miller in X. “These looted assets were used to finance terrorism and flood our streets with murderers, mercenaries and drugs,” added the Trump advisor, although users managed to create a community note contextualizing the events. Among the details, with citations to the US legislation itself, it is indicated that it was Venezuelan workers who built the facilities and that the North American companies were financially compensated for the nationalization.
The Venezuelan oil industry was nationalized on January 1, 1976, during the first presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez, and the rights to explore and exploit the country’s fields were reserved for the state company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Later, in 2007, Hugo Chávez modified the rules on the oil industry to force transnational companies to become minority partners of PDVSA or withdraw from the country.
The controversy began on December 10, when Washington ordered seize the sanctioned Skipperwho had just left an amount thousands of barrels of crude oil Venezuelan in Cuba and continued heading to Asia, to sell the rest of the cargo to China, revealing a modus operandi of Havana that had been talked about for a long time. The scheme implies that, of the oil that the Island acquires from Venezuela, it keeps a small quota for its needs and resells the rest to Beijing to obtain foreign currency.
Caracas has rejected the US seizures as a “theft” and insists that it will exercise “all corresponding actions”
Caracas has rejected the US seizures as “theft” and insists that it will take “all appropriate actions.” Maduro, specifically, has called these confiscations “piracy by privateers” and added that his country has been “25 weeks denouncing, confronting and defeating a campaign of aggression that ranges from psychological terrorism to privateers who have assaulted oil tankers.”
Meanwhile, the paradox is that the United States continues to benefit from the oil that Chevron extracts from Venezuela, thanks to a license granted by the Trump Administration that allows the company to export half of its production to the United States and regulates payments to the Government of Caracas. In November, the company pumped 150,000 barrels per day, up from 128,000 in October. In addition, the company is also a supplier of US gasoline to joint ventures operating with permission from Washington, which has contributed to increasing imports of light crude oil and fuel, which doubled to about 167,000 bpd from 74,000 bpd in October.
At the same time, the United States has not placed any impediment for oil tankers sanctioned by the European Union to reach Cuba. This Tuesday the jaspera tanker from the Russian ghost fleet, which flies the flag of Vanuatu and transports 300,000 barrels of Russian crude oil according to Jorge Piñón, an energy researcher at the University of Texas.
In May, the EU sanctioned this ship for its contribution to Russian coffers, which can thus continue the invasion of Ukraine “using high-risk irregular shipping practices, as specified in Resolution A.1192(33) of the General Assembly of the International Maritime Organization.” In addition, the United Kingdom and Switzerland joined these measures in the following months.
The cargo will be added to those that travel from Mexico to the Island, a total of 80,000 barrels of fuel on board the Eugenia Gas and the Ocean Marinerboth with the Liberian flag. The second, according to ship tracking applications, will arrive in Havana this Tuesday, while the first could have arrived in Moa already last week, although the Cuban port has not declared its arrival.
