U.S. Coast Guard Boards Panama Flagged Tanker Carrying Venezuelan Oil
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said a vessel had been “apprehended.” It was the second action this month against a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil. The Centuries, seen here below in Venezuelan waters after loading oil in early December, was boarded on Saturday by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The U.S. Coast Guard stopped and boarded a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying Venezuelan oil early Saturday, according to a U.S. official and two people inside Venezuela’s oil industry. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. The boarding represents the United States’ second action this month against a tanker carrying Venezuelan crude oil to Asia, escalating President Trump’s pressure campaign against the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, pictured below. Trump has accused Maduro of flooding the United States with fentanyl and of stealing oil from American companies, without providing evidence. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump had announced “a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.”
But the vessel boarded on Saturday, called the Centuries, is not on a list of entities under U.S. sanctions that is publicly maintained by the Treasury Department. The people inside Venezuela’s oil industry said the cargo belongs to an established China-based oil trader with a history of taking Venezuelan crude oil to Chinese refineries. The ship had recently left Venezuela and was in Caribbean waters. Kristi Noem pictured below, the homeland security secretary, said in a post on X Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard had “apprehended” a tanker that had been docked in Venezuela. “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” she wrote. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
Ms. Noem also posted a video that appeared to show U.S. forces rappelling from a helicopter onto the ship’s deck. It was unclear how long the United States intended to detain the Centuries. The U.S. official who confirmed the boarding of the ship said that American authorities did not have a seizure warrant to take possession of it, as they did when they seized another tanker earlier this month that was carrying Venezuelan oil. The White House did not respond to Newsroom Panama’s requests for comment. The Venezuelan government said in a statement that the country “denounces and categorically rejects the theft and hijacking of another private vessel transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as the forced disappearance of its crew.”
