Vanessa Buschschlüterand
Seher Asaf
Watch: Moment US intercepts a second oil tanker off Venezuela
The US Coast Guard is still pursuing a vessel in international waters near Venezuela as tensions in the region escalate, President Donald Trump has confirmed.
“We’re actually pursuing” the tanker, Trump said on Monday. “It came out of Venezuela and it was sanctioned”. US authorities have already seized two oil tankers this month – one of them on Saturday.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of using oil money to fund drug-related crime, while Venezuela has described the tanker seizures as “piracy”.
The current chase is related to a “sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion”, a US official told the BBC’s partner CBS News.
Late on Saturday the US Coast Guard approached an oil tanker, which US officials said was not flying a valid national flag, the New York Times reported.
Confirming the chase on Monday, President Trump said: “It’s moving along. We’ll end up getting it.”
The president said that the US would hold onto the seized oil and the vessels carrying it.
“We’re going to keep it… maybe we’ll sell it, maybe we’ll keep it”, he said.
“Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping it, we’re keeping the ships also.”
He had been in touch with the “big” American oil companies about the seizures, he added.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard identified the tanker as Bella 1, a very large crude oil carrier which reportedly was on its way to Venezuela to pick up oil.
When it added the Bella 1 to its sanctions list, the US Treasury Department accused its registered owner of having links to Iran and of providing
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