Overview
- Roughly a dozen to as many as 16 oil tankers under U.S. sanctions departed Venezuelan waters in recent days with tracking signals off and, in some cases, spoofed identities, according to TankerTrackers.com and multiple outlets.
- Satellite imagery showed at least four vessels routing north of Isla Margarita, while a separate set of sanctioned ships left empty after domestic runs, Reuters reported.
- Vessel authorizations remain contested, with Reuters citing a source who says at least four supertankers were cleared to depart as The New York Times reported four left without approval from the interim government.
- U.S. surveillance is tracking the Marinera, a tanker formerly known as Bella 1, about 250 miles off Ireland, and U.S. officials told CBS News they plan to interdict the sanctioned ship.
- The departures follow weeks of a U.S. naval blockade that curtailed exports and swelled PDVSA’s floating storage, and come as Washington insists the oil embargo remains fully in effect.