US seeks to assert its control over Venezuelan oil with tanker seizures and sales worldwide

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00:00Well, the U.S. military has seized two oil tankers linked to Venezuela,

00:04fresh off comments from Trump's energy secretary that the U.S. would oversee

00:08the sale of Venezuelan oil indefinitely. Now, the Coast Guard had been in pursuit of the first

00:14tanker, which was flying a Russian flag for two weeks. Russia had asked the U.S. to keep its hands

00:19off the off Bella One, which was not carrying any cargo. And the move now escalates a confrontation

00:25between the White House and Moscow. Now, hours later, there was word that the U.S. had seized

00:29a second oil tanker linked to Venezuela. U.S. officials claim authority to seize the sanctioned

00:35vessels under the belief that they are part of a shadow fleet supplying oil to places like Iran

00:40and Russia. For more on this, let's cross to our correspondent in Washington, Fraser Jackson.

00:46Fraser, what details can you provide on the seizure of these two oil tankers? What are you learning?

00:54Well, the U.S. had initially tried to seize this tanker initially a month ago when it was believed

00:59to be heading for Venezuela. And since then, it has changed its name from the Bella One

01:03to Maritana. Now, that has happened since it disappeared from the U.S.'s site and slipped

01:12that military blockade that was taking place in the Caribbean. It's since re-emerged as a Russian

01:18flagged ship called the Marinara. And it was en route, believed, to the northern Russian Arctic port

01:26when it was ultimately seized by the U.S. Coast Guard in between Iceland and the British Isles.

01:32The Russians apparently had also sent a ship and submarine en route to escort it back to that port,

01:38but it was seized before those Russian ships arrived. And it is believed that the cargo was

01:45empty when it was taken. But the ship is accused of breaking U.S. sanctions and also U.K. sanctions as

01:52well, which had been in place on the ship since September of last year. And it has historically

01:57been used to carry both Venezuelan and also Iranian oil as well. The other ship that we learned the

02:04fate of in a daring morning raid took place in the Caribbean. That was the ship Zafir, another tanker,

02:10which is believed to be linked to the Venezuelan oil industry as well. We heard from Caroline Levitt,

02:15she called it a stateless tanker, saying that it was conducting, quote, illicit activities.

02:19And we are now learning that that ship will be escorted to the United States. This all part

02:25of the United States' Operation Southern Spear, which is, of course, taking care of many of those

02:30boats that we've seen the strikes on in the course of the last couple of months as well.

02:34Pete Hexer, the Secretary of Defense, said that the blockade of sanctioned and illicit

02:40Venezuelan oil remains in full effect anywhere in the world. This, though, part of the U.S.'s new

02:48strategy to try to bring the Venezuelan regime to the table and to bring them under the U.S.'s

02:54control, of course, after the ousting of Maduro over the weekend. And it appears that that effort

02:59to financially squeeze the Venezuelans is already starting to bear fruit.

03:04Well, Fraser, you say this may be part of a tactic by Trump to get Venezuela on board with

03:09his agenda. What more can you tell us about that?

03:15We heard from the president late last evening when he said that the Venezuelans would be sending

03:2030 to 50 million barrels of oil over to the United States in a deal worth up to around $2 billion.

03:28Donald Trump says that they'll be selling, the Americans, they'll be selling that oil and it will

03:33be worth a significant amount of money. That is something Donald Trump will be undertaking himself,

03:37he says, and it's done to benefit both the U.S. people, but also the people of Venezuela as well.

03:44There's also, however, fresh reporting coming in that was first reported by ABC, but has since

03:50been reported by numerous other outlets as well, that the U.S. has told the Venezuela's interim

03:55president, Delce Rodriguez, the demands that it wants in order to bring the oil industry online

04:02there from Venezuela. Now, there are citing three sources familiar, this ABC reporting, but again,

04:07it's since been more widely reported. Caroline Levy even asked about this in the briefing earlier

04:12today. First, it's the Americans have demanded that the Venezuelans cut and kick out China, Russia,

04:19Iran and Cuba, as well as sever economic ties with these nations. So stop selling oil to those places.

04:25That is significant because China buys about 67% of Venezuela's oil at the moment. And then secondly,

04:32Venezuela must also agree to partner exclusively with the United States on oil production and favor

04:38America when selling heavy crude oil. Now, it's believed that this blockade that the U.S. has

04:44on Venezuelan oil is going to be very effective because effectively the tankers that it has at the

04:50moment are already full and the Venezuelans cannot pump any more oil because there's nowhere for that oil

04:54that they do pump to go. And that therefore effectively chokeholds the Venezuelan economy

04:59and puts it in a financial stymie, which Marco Rubio briefed a couple of sentences on a couple

05:04of days ago and said that he believes he can see some kind of resolution on this in the next couple

05:08of weeks. So the financial squeeze really is tightening around Venezuela and the U.S. hoping

05:13that that situation will bring the U.S., the Venezuelan interim regime into line with the U.S.'s aims.

05:19Okay. Our correspondent in Washington, Fraser Jackson. Fraser, thanks as always. We appreciate it.

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