Panama-flagged oil tanker 'Centuries', before it was seized by US Coast Guard forces in a helicopter (highlighted in red); (inset) US video footage offering another angle of the seizure operation
The United States intercepted a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker on Saturday in international waters of the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela, according to US media. This is the second vessel intercepted in the Caribbean by the Donald Trump administration, which last week seized the Skipper and confiscated the crude oil it was carrying. According to The New York Times , which cites a US official and two sources in the Venezuelan oil industry, the detained ship is called Centuries and is not on the list of tankers sanctioned by the United States. However, the newspaper indicates that the ship belongs to a China-based oil company that transports Venezuelan crude to refineries in the Asian giant.
The U.S. military provided support in the operation with helicopters that transported Coast Guard personnel to the ship, according to NBC News. So far, Trump has not commented on the matter. The president has intensified his pressure on Venezuela in recent weeks, and recently ordered a total blockade of the entry and exit of oil tankers sanctioned by the US government to the country. Furthermore, the Republican stated last Wednesday that the Caribbean country took away oil rights from US companies. “Remember that they took away all our energy rights. They took all our oil not so long ago. We want it back. They took it from us illegally,” the president told the press.
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