U.S. tanker seizure has paralyzed Venezuelan oil shipping—except Chevron’s

Chevron stands as one of the last big shippers of Venezuelan oil after the U.S. seized a sanctioned tanker last week allegedly carrying the country's crude to the black market.

- Collin Eaton, Benoit Faucon & Kejal Vyas

Vessels are idling at ports or veering away from the region. But Chevron is unaffected.

(AFP)

The threat of another U.S. seizure has disrupted the country's usually bustling traffic of dark-fleet vessels ferrying the Latin American country's oil to China and Cuba. Several tankers are idling at Venezuelan ports, and others are veering away from the region, vessel-tracking data show.

President Trump on Tuesday ordered a complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela, escalating his administration's pressure campaign against strongman Nicolás Maduro.

For Chevron, though, it remains business as usual . The company is still sending oil tankers to the U.S. Gulf Coast, its operations unimpeded thus far by rising tension between Trump and Maduro.

The day after U.S. forces captured the dark-fleet supertanker Skipper, two vessels carrying crude for Chevron departed from the Bajo Grande, a port on Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo, both bound for the U.S., according to data from TankerTrackers.com.

A Chevron spokesman said its operations in Venezuela continue without disruption and in compliance with the law. He called the company's presence in Venezuela a stabilizing force for the local economy and directed questions about the security situation to U.S. officials.

"They've stuck with the Venezuelan market through thick and thin, and endured a lot of adverse conditions, a lot of headwinds," said Clay Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Chevron, in a way, is punching above its weight in terms of contributing to the future of Venezuela."