Trump says US is seeking third oil tanker linked to Venezuela

The U.S. Coast Guard is still pursuing a ship in international waters near Venezuela as tensions in the region escalate, President Donald Trump has confirmed.

“We’re actually pursuing” the tanker, Trump said Monday. “He came out of Venezuela and was sanctioned.” American authorities have already seized two tankers this month, including one on Saturday.

The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of using oil money to fund drug crimes, while Venezuela has called the oil tanker seizures “piracy.”

The current pursuit is linked to a “sanctioned Black Fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion program,” a US official told BBC partner CBS News.

On Saturday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard approached an oil tanker that U.S. authorities said was not flying a valid national flag, The New York Times reported.

Confirming the suit Monday, President Trump said, “It’s moving forward. We’ll get it eventually.”

The president said the United States would keep the seized oil and the ships that carried it.

“We’ll keep it…maybe we’ll sell it, maybe we’ll keep it,” he said.

“Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We keep it, we also keep the ships.”

He had been in contact with the “big” American oil companies about these seizures, he added.

British maritime risk management group Vanguard identified the tanker as the Bella 1, a very large crude carrier believed to have been en route to Venezuela to pick up oil.

THE The United States added the Bella 1 to its sanctions list last year for allegedly “transporting sanctioned goods”.

When it added the Bella 1 to its sanctions list, the U.S. Treasury Department accused its registered owner of having ties to Iran and providing support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The New York Times reports that the tanker “did not submit to boarding” and fled northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, pursued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

BBC Verify analyzed 50 distress signals transmitted by Bella 1, the first of which was picked up at 1:44 p.m. GMT on December 21, 461 km (286 miles) northeast of Antigua and Barbuda.

The last distress call was received at 17:13 GMT the same day, about 60 km further northeast in the Atlantic Ocean.

The distance between the two points suggests that it was moving at a speed of around 10 knots (11.5 mph).

The Bella 1 is the third tanker targeted by the United States in the waters off Venezuela.

On December 10, the Coast Guard seized the Skipper, which U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran.”

The Skipper has since been escorted to Galveston, Texas, where he arrived on Sunday.

On Saturday, Coast Guard personnel boarded an oil tanker with the name Centuries written on the side.

Although the Centuries is not on the U.S. Treasury’s list of sanctioned ships, the White House said it was carrying oil from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Centuries “operated as part of the Venezuelan Shadow Fleet to traffic stolen oil and finance Maduro’s narcoterrorist regime.”

The seizure of the tankers is the latest development in the pressure campaign led by the United States against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Since Trump returned to power in January, the United States has doubled the reward it is offering for information leading to Maduro’s capture, declared his government a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and last week ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the country.

While the Venezuelan government relies heavily on profits from oil exports to finance its spending, this latest move has sparked particular outrage among Venezuelan officials.

Although President Maduro did not directly reference the seizure of the Centuries or the pursuit of the Bella 1, he denounced the U.S. actions as “piracy” in comments he made on Sunday.

Maduro also accused the United States of trying to seize Venezuela’s oil wealth – the South American country has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

At Venezuela’s request, United Nations security services will hold an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss what Caracas has called “ongoing American aggression.”

China appeared to side with Venezuela on Monday, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson denouncing “unilateral and illegal sanctions that lack basis in international law or authorization from the United Nations Security Council.”

The spokesperson added that “Venezuela has the right to develop independently and engage in mutually beneficial cooperation with other nations.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart on Monday, after which Russia expressed “its full support and solidarity with the Venezuelan leaders.”

Russia and China have supported the Venezuelan government financially and militarily for years.

But in the current situation, experts say this support appears to be largely symbolicwith statements of support rather than concrete military or financial aid.