Last week, before the Trump administration shut down Venezuela's military and seized its illegitimate head of state, there was a minor sideshow taking place in the Atlantic Ocean. The US Coast Guard had already seized two oil tankers off the shore of Venezuela but then seemed to let a third tanker make a run for it.
That tanker, called the Bella 1, is part of a shadow fleet that passes oil between various states under sanction by the US. It had made a long voyage from Iran to the coast of Venezuela where the US Coast Guard announced plans to board it in December. But the ship's crew refused and then turned around and headed for the Atlantic with the US following.
The U.S. Coast Guard is waiting for additional forces to arrive before potentially attempting to board and seize a Venezuela-linked oil tanker it has been pursuing since Sunday, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The ship, which maritime groups have identified as the Bella 1, has refused to be boarded by the Coast Guard. That means that the task will likely fall to one of just two teams of specialists - known as Maritime Security Response Teams - who can board vessels under these circumstances, including by rappelling from helicopters.
There didn't seem to be a plan at first but eventually, the crew painted a Russian flag on the side of the tanker and, miraculously, the ship appeared in a Russian database under a new name, allegedly proving it the vessel was officially flagged as a Russian ship. Russian even made a request that the US stop following the ship, which seemed to be headed for a Russian port. But yesterday CBS News reported that the US was still planning to intercept the tanker.
American forces plan to intercept an evading oil tanker that has historically carried Venezuelan crude oil and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans...
The two officials familiar with the Marinera seizure plans said the U.S. would rather seize the ship than sink it and said the operation could be similar to the one conducted last month when U.S. Marines and special operation forces working with the U.S. Coast Guard seized The Skipper, a large crude oil tanker flagged out of Guyana, after the vessel had left port in Venezuela...
The two U.S. officials with knowledge of U.S. military operational planning said the interdiction mission could come as early as this week but like any Defense Department plans, the operation could ultimately be shelved.
A site called The War Zone reported yesterday that Special Ops aircraft were being positioned in the UK for the mission.
Open-source tracking data and spotters on the ground are showing a sudden surge of U.S. aircraft to Europe. The deployments include C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets, possibly packed with helicopters, emanating from the home of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), AC-130J Ghostrider gunships, and a shadowy special operations turboprop aircraft. While U.S. aircraft routinely transit to and through that continent, the number of flights and their origin have raised speculation of potential future special operations missions in the region, and that speculation could be well founded.
The deployments of these aircraft increasingly seem like they are in support of a future operation to board the Russian-flagged Crude Oil Tanker Marinera, which until recently has been known as the Bella-1, and has been pursued by the Coast Guard since last month.
So if it happens it will probably happen in the next few days as the ship makes its way past the UK. However, this may be only the start of a pursuit of several more tankers. The NY Times reports that as many as 16 more have fled Venezuela since the US operation to seize Maduro.
At least 16 oil tankers hit by U.S. sanctions appear to have made an attempt to evade a major American naval blockade on Venezuela’s energy exports over the last two days, in part by disguising their true locations or turning off their transmission signals.
For weeks, the ships had been spotted on satellite imagery docked in Venezuelan ports, according to an analysis by The New York Times. But by Saturday, in the wake of President Nicolás Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces, all were gone from those locations.
Four have been tracked by satellite sailing east 30 miles from shore, using fake ship names and misrepresenting their positions, a deceptive tactic known as “spoofing.” These four have left port without the interim government’s authorization, according to internal communications from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company and two people in the Venezuelan oil industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. The departures could be seen as an early act of defiance of interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s control.
The other 12 are not broadcasting any signals and have not been located in new imagery...
Fifteen of the 16 ships that were on the move on Saturday were under U.S. sanctions for hauling Iranian and Russian oil.
The Russian shadow fleet of tankers is estimated to involve several hundred ships so this is not a significant portion of that fleet. Still, it will be interesting to see if we let these tankers go or try to seize more of them before they get as far away as the Bella 1.
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