Uncertainty over the future of operations is growing after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend.
According to Reuters, port activity at the country’s main oil terminal, José, has slowed to a standstill, with no tankers authorized to depart in recent days. However, about a dozen tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude oil and fuel have left the country’s waters in dark mode since the start of the year, according to documents seen by Reuters and industry sources including monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has begun cutting crude production as storage capacity fills and exports have dropped under a U.S.-enforced oil blockade. As a result, PDVSA has increasingly relied on floating storage, with more than 17 million barrels of crude and fuel now held aboard vessels waiting offshore. Even Chevron, which had continued limited liftings under a U.S. license, has halted exports, Reuters reports.
Several tankers that had loaded cargoes remain at anchor, while others scheduled to load have left Venezuelan waters empty, reflecting growing uncertainty among owners and charterers over sanctions exposure.
In addition, on 31 December, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four companies for operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and identified four associated oil tankers as blocked property.
According to Windward, from April to December 2025, smuggling-related ship-to-ship meetings inside Venezuela’s EEZ surged by 65%, with 173 operations detected over a three-week span.
In addition, Windward identified two additional Western-sanctioned tankers currently in Venezuelan waters that reflagged to Russia over the past 12 days to prevent U.S. naval interception.
Hyperion (IMO 9322968) departed Venezuela on January 1 flying the Russian flag, while Premier (IMO 9577082) signaled via AIS that it had changed its flag from Gambia to Russia on December 22. The vessel remains at José Terminal in Venezuela.
A few days prior, the crew of the sanctioned oil tanker Bella 1 painted a crude Russian flag on the ship’s hull during a US Coast Guard pursuit in the Atlantic.
Source: safety4sea.com
