US authorities have seized a third oil tanker linked to Venezuela after a pursuit in the Caribbean Sea. This is also the second tanker seized by US forces in less than 24 hours. The US Coast Guard tried to intercept the 2002-built VLCC Bella 1 late on Saturday. According to three US officials who spoke with the New York Times, the vessel was not flying a valid national flag, making it a stateless vessel liable to be boarded at sea under international law. Some databases have the vessel as Guyana-flagged, while others claim that it is sailing under the Panama flag. There are even cases which list the vessel’s flag as unknown. Data provided by Equasis claims that the vessel is owned and managed by Istanbul-based Louis Marine Shipholding. US authorities also had a seizure warrant issued by a federal magistrate judge, allowing them to take possession of the ship. However, the officials claimed that the warrant had been issued due to the vessel’s involvement in the Iranian oil trade, not because of its ties to Venezuela, which placed it on the sanctions list by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury. The tanker was placed on the sanctions list under the name Adisa back in 2022. The Treasury said at the time that the vessel was “a sprawling international oil smuggling operation that funnelled revenue to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah.” The officials, speaking to the media outlet under the condition of anonymity, said that the vessel refused to be boarded, with the situation escalating into a pursuit. The vessel was eventually boarded and seized by US forces. Maritime data analytics firm Kpler stated that the Bella 1 was en route to pick up oil in Venezuela and was not carrying cargo. Kpler also noted that the vessel had a long history of sanction-evasion activity, such as Iranian and Venezuelan crude loadings, extended AIS gaps, spoofing, and dark ship-to-ship transfers in Asia. This is the third tanker seized by the US since Donald Trump announced what he called a “total and complete” blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering or departing Venezuelan waters. Early on Saturday, US authorities intercepted and boarded the Panama-flagged VLCC Centuries carrying Venezuelan crude east of Barbados. The first of the three tankers, named Skipper, was seized on December 10. The two latest seizures occurred regardless of Venezuela deploying naval escorts for vessels carrying oil byproducts as they depart its ports. In the case of the Bella 1, tracking data shows that it had not yet reached Venezuelan waters and had no escort before it was stopped by US forces. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsUnited States Venezuela