According to the media, the US is actively pursuing a third oil tanker near Venezuela.

WASHINGTON: The United States is actively pursuing a third oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, US news outlets reported on Sunday. “The U.S. Coast Guard is actively pursuing a sanctioned fleet vessel that is part of illegal efforts by Venezuela to evade sanctions. The vessel is flying a false flag and is under a judicial seizure order,” a U.S. official told NBC News.

Bloomberg News reported earlier on Sunday that the tanker, named Bella 1, had been stopped by US personnel en route to Venezuela to load cargo. Later it was told that the search operation is still going on. According to news agency Xinhua, if this tanker is caught, it will be the third tanker belonging to the oil-rich South American country Venezuela that has been stopped by the US in less than two weeks.

A day earlier, the US Coast Guard raided the Panama-flagged supertanker ‘Centuries’ off the coast of Venezuela, which is not included in Washington’s sanctions list. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the crude on board the Centuries came from Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), which is under US sanctions.

On December 10, US forces seized the tanker Skipper near Venezuelan waters and announced US plans to seize its oil reserves. On December 16, US President Donald Trump ordered a “complete and total blockade” of prohibited tankers entering or exiting Venezuela and announced that the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been designated a “foreign terrorist organization”.

Dozens of tankers on the US sanctions list are currently in Venezuelan waters, according to TankerTrackers.com, a website that tracks oil transportation. Oil exports are considered the backbone of Venezuela’s economy, the source of most of its foreign income.

Venezuela has accused Washington of seeking regime change and military expansion in Latin America and condemned the blockade of oil tankers as “piracy.”