Oil tankers reroute amid seizure risks near Venezuela

Oil tankers are increasingly bypassing Venezuela due to the risk of seizure by the United States, Azernews reports, citing Bloomberg.

According to the publication, at least seven vessels originally bound for Venezuela have either changed course or halted operations at sea. Four of these tankers reportedly turned back after US forces seized the Skipper tanker in mid-December, signaling heightened enforcement risks in the region.

The ships avoiding Caribbean waters have a combined capacity of up to 12.4 million barrels of crude oil, underscoring the scale of the disruption to Venezuela’s oil logistics.

“As tankers avoid entering Venezuela, oil tanks in the country are filling up, forcing the state company Petroleos de Venezuela to shut down some wells. Production in the Orinoco region, where most of Venezuela’s oil is produced, fell by 25% on the 29th of the month compared to mid-December,” Bloomberg notes.

The situation is adding further pressure to Venezuela’s already constrained oil sector, affecting both exports and domestic production operations.