Flotilla of oil tankers break through Trump's blockade of Venezuela

Over a dozen of sanctioned oil tankers have fled Venezuela in 'dark mode' in an effort to evade Donald Trump's blockade of the country.

The 16 vessels, mostly loaded with Venezuelan crude oil and fuel, departed the country's waters over the past two days using deceptive tactics, including disguising their true locations or turning off their transmission signals.

The tactics appear to be part of a seemingly coordinated attempt to bypass American naval forces in the region and could trigger US military action at sea.

Over the past few weeks, the ships were visible on satellite imagery docked in Venezuelan ports, but they were all gone from those locations by Saturday in the wake of President Nicolás Maduro's capture by US forces.

While Trump claimed the oil embargo on Venezuela remained in 'full force' after Maduro's extraction,  the vessels still made the risky decision to leave port.

All the identified vessels are under sanctions and most of them are supertankers that typically carry Venezuelan crude to China, according to TankerTrackers.com and shipping documents from state-run Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. 

At least four of the tankers were tracked by satellite data sailing east 30 miles from shore, using fake ship names and misrepresenting their locations in a strategy known as 'spoofing'. 

Their unauthorised departures could be viewed as an early act of defiance against interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s leadership.

The other 12 tankers are not broadcasting any signals and have not been located in new imagery because they're operating in 'dark mode'. 

On December 16, US President Trump imposed a 'complete blockade' on sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers, in a move Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said was one of the largest 'quarantines' in modern history. 

He added that it was successfully 'paralysing' the regime’s ability to generate revenue.

The exit of the vessels - which have been stuck in Venezuelan waters since they were loaded in December - was likely an attempt to overwhelm the blockade.

Three of the ships were seen moving closely together, indicating coordination, but it wasn't immediately clear where the vessels were heading.

The tankers that left without authorisation were contracted by the oil traders Alex Saab and Ramón Carretero, according to the New York Times.

Both were sanctioned by the US for having close ties to Maduro’s regime.

While Saab was jailed in the US in 2021, he was subsequently freed in an exchange deal two years later under Biden.

Fifteen of the 16 ships that were on the move on Saturday were under US sanctions for hauling Iranian and Russian oil. 

The Aquila II sent out a signal falsely identifying itself as the Cape Balder and spoofed its coordinates to appear in the Baltic Sea. 

Meanwhile, the Bertha - operating under the alias Ekta - indicated it was off the coast of Nigeria.

A third tanker, the Veronica III, used the fake name DS Vector and is also sending a 'zombie' signal to appear close to the west African country.

'Our anticipation from the start of the blockade was that it would be broken by overwhelming it with an outbound flotilla heading in various directions from various terminals,' Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, said.

'That appears to have been the case over the past 36 to 48 hours. If this were a navy versus navy blockade, there would have been an exchange of fire, but these tankers are laden with oil,' he told the Telegraph.

Even if some were intercepted, Madani added that it was likely to have been considered worth the risk for the tankers to flee.

Three tankers attempting to transport sanctioned Venezuelan oil in past weeks were seized by US forces. 

They descended on the Skipper in a helicopter-led assault while it was on its way to China on December 10.

The Centuries was boarded but not seized 10 days later, while Bella 1 is still being pursued.

In recent days, at least four supertankers had ⁠been cleared by Venezuelan authorities to exit Venezuelan waters in dark ‌mode, a source told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear if the departures were in defiance of the US blockade.

Though President Trump said that the oil embargo had not been lifted, he added that Venezuela's largest customers, including China, would keep receiving oil.

PDVSA had accumulated a large inventory of floating storage since the US blockade began last month, dragging the country's oil exports to a standstill.

The company is reducing oil output and asked some joint ventures to shut well clusters because of accumulated oil and residual fuel stocks both onshore and in vessels anchored near its ports.

Oil exports are Venezuela's main source of revenue, which will be needed by an interim government led by Oil Minister and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to finance spending and secure stability in the country.