US Seizes Another VLCC Fleeing Venezuela

In the latest sign that the U.S. government is willing to take extraordinary measures to enforce its sanctions on Venezuela's oil exports, the Pentagon announced that U.S. forces have boarded and seized the Panamanian-flagged VLCC (very large crude carrier) Veronica III in the Indian Ocean. According to a statement from the Pentagon, the U.S. tracked the Veronica III from the Caribbean before intercepting the tanker. This marks the second VLCC that the U.S. has seized in recent months that was attempting to transport Venezuelan crude, following the seizure of the Maximilian I in August 2020. The move is the latest salvo in Washington's campaign to choke off Venezuela's oil exports, a key source of revenue for the Maduro regime. The U.S. has aggressively enforced sanctions on Venezuelan oil since 2019 in an effort to pressure Maduro to step down. This has led to a dramatic decline in the country's oil production and exports, which have fallen from over 2 million barrels per day in 2016 to just a few hundred thousand bpd currently. "The United States continues to leverage its unique capabilities to disrupt Iran and Venezuela's oil-for-cash schemes that prop up the regimes in those countries," said a Pentagon spokesperson, according to reporting from Splash247. The seizure of the Veronica III underscores the lengths the U.S. is willing to go to enforce its sanctions and choke off Venezuela's oil exports. As the country's economic crisis deepens, the Maduro government has grown increasingly desperate to find ways to export its crude, leading to these types of high-seas interdictions by U.S. forces.