Sixteen oil tankers flee Venezuela in coordinated run past US blockade

At least 16 oil tankers fled Venezuelan ports this weekend in a coordinated attempt to overwhelm the U.S. naval blockade, according to the New York Times. The vessels — 15 of which were already under sanctions — scattered in different directions, some transmitting false names and position data or going dark by switching off their tracking systems entirely.

The escape attempt follows the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3rd as part of Operation Southern Spear. The tankers weren't acting on orders from acting president Delcy Rodríguez, according to the Times' sources, but were controlled by sanctioned businesses and individuals close to Maduro. Oil industry sources told the paper the vessels were contracted by traders Alex Saab and Ramón Carretero, and that by coordinating their departures simultaneously, they hoped to stretch U.S. enforcement capacity too thin to catch them all.

The blockade has already cut deep into Venezuela's oil exports. In November, about 950,000 barrels per day left the country; last month, that dropped to around 500,000. The U.S. enacted the quarantine on December 17th after seizing the tanker Skipper off Venezuela's coast a week earlier.

One vessel, the Bella 1, has been evading the Coast Guard for nearly two weeks, leading Russia to file a formal diplomatic protest on New Year's Eve, demanding the U.S. stop pursuing it. The ship has since appeared on Russia's official registry under a new name. Whether that legal maneuver will deter the Coast Guard remains to be seen.

Previously:
• A spectacularly disaster-prone oil tanker and other curiosities
• Three migrants stowed away on a ship's rudder for 11-day voyage from Nigeria
• Watch steelworkers forge enormous steel anchor chains