US forces seized an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after chasing it down all the way from the Caribbean, expanding the global breadth of Washington’s campaign against shadow vessels.
The month-long pursuit of the ship, which had fled the quarantine around Venezuela, marked the eighth seizure since the Trump administration began intercepting illicit oil shipments to pressure Caracas.
With Washington now asserting control over Venezuelan crude, “contours of a new oil order” are emerging, the Middle East Council on Global Affairs wrote, in which the US and Gulf share “bifurcated control of the marketplace.”
The US energy secretary said he plans to visit Venezuela soon, with a focus on improving the country’s state-run oil company.