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US tried to intercept two more ships over the weekend

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China and Venezuela condemn US actions as violations of

international law

By Marianna Parraga

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Tanker loading in Venezuela dwindled

on Monday, with most ships moving oil cargoes only between

domestic ports following U.S. action against two more ships and

as state-run energy company PDVSA struggles to recover from a

cyberattack, according to tracking data and sources.

The U.S. Coast Guard this month seized a supertanker under

sanctions carrying Venezuelan oil and tried to intercept ‌two

more Venezuela-related ships over the weekend, U.S. authorities

said. One of them is an empty ship under U.S. sanctions, and the

other is an unsanctioned, fully loaded tanker bound for China.

Washington has not ​provided updated information on the

ships. U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a

blockade of all oil tankers under sanctions entering and ‍leaving

Venezuela. Trump's pressure campaign on Venezuelan President

Nicolas Maduro has included a ramped-up military presence in the

region ⁠and more than two dozen military ⁠strikes on vessels the

U.S. alleges are transporting drugs in the Pacific Ocean and

Caribbean Sea near the South American nation. At least 100

people have been killed.

OIL PRICES RISE

The vessel interceptions ‌have dealt the toughest blow to

PDVSA since the U.S. Treasury Department in ​2020 imposed

sanctions on the company's former oil trading firms, two units

of Russia's Rosneft, which forced output and export

cuts.

Brent crude futures gained 2.17% to $61.78 a barrel

on Monday, while U.S. WTI crude rose 2.2% to $57.77

following the U.S. actions and ⁠amid Russia's war against

Ukraine, with both developments raising fears of supply

disruptions.

As ‍of Monday, PDVSA had ​delivered a 1.9 million-barrel cargo

of heavy crude to the Aruba-flagged sanctioned vessel Azure

Voyager at the Jose port, but no other supertanker bound for

Asia was scheduled to load soon, internal company documents

showed.

The number of loaded tankers that have not departed ‍has

increased in recent days, leaving millions of barrels of

Venezuelan oil stuck in ships, while customers demand deeper

discounts and contract changes to take risky voyages beyond the

country's waters.

Some tankers approaching Venezuela's coast, either to load

oil for export or to deliver imported naphtha, have also made

U-turns or suspended navigation recently until instructions from

owners to load are clarified, LSEG monitoring data showed on

Monday.

PDVSA is slowly restoring some online systems and resorting

to written records after a cyberattack last week. The company

has been unable to fully re-establish its centralized

administrative system, and many workers have not received ​their

salaries on time, ‍sources said.

PDVSA and Venezuela's Oil Ministry have not replied to

requests for comment. The country's Foreign Affairs Minister,

Yvan Gil, said on Monday the U.S. seizures are against

international law and constitute "acts of piracy."

China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday the recent U.S.

interceptions ​were a serious violation of international law.

PDVSA's main joint-venture partner Chevron ( CVX ) exported

a 500,000-barrel cargo of Venezuelan oil on Sunday, bound for

the U.S. Gulf Coast on one of its tankers under its U.S.

authorization, LSEG ship data showed.

Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez said on Sunday Venezuela had

not interrupted deliveries to Chevron ( CVX ), in a social media post

that included a video of Venezuela's maritime authority

overseeing the ship's departure.

Chevron ( CVX ) has exported seven cargoes of Venezuelan oil to the

U.S. this month, each carrying between 300,000 and 500,000

barrels, according to monitoring data.

PURSUED BY THE U.S.

The Panama-flagged empty supertanker Bella 1, which the U.S.

Coast Guard tried to intercept on Sunday when ​the ship

approached Venezuela, was drifting on Monday northeast of

Bermuda in the Caribbean, a satellite image obtained by

TankerTrackers.com showed.

A U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday the tanker had not

been boarded and that interceptions could take different forms -

including by sailing or flying close to vessels of concern.

The loaded vessel Skipper, the first seized by the U.S. this

month, reached ‍an area near the Galveston, Texas, port for

transferring oil cargoes on Sunday, maritime sources said.