FILE – Evana, an oil tanker, is docked at El Palito Port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
CARACAS: At least 16 sanctioned oil tankers have left Venezuelan waters since US forces captured president Nicolas Maduro on Saturday (Jan 10), specialised maritime surveillance analysts said Monday.
Thirteen of the tankers were carrying around 12 million barrels of crude oil and refined oil products, according to Tanker Trackers.
Four of them could be seen heading north from Venezuela in a satellite image from the European Copernicus programme viewed by AFP on Saturday.
Tanker Trackers identified them as the Aquila II, the Bertha, the Veronica III, and the Vesna.
The four vessels are under US sanctions, which makes them subject to the Dec 16 naval blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump on sanctioned oil tankers arriving at or departing from Venezuela.
The first three ships are transporting crude oil, while the Vesna is empty, according to Tanker Trackers.
AFP was able to confirm independently using satellite data that the Vesna, which is under US sanctions for suspected links with Iran and Russia, was about 40 kilometres east of Grenada on Sunday, some 500 kilometres from its position the previous day.
Eleven of the remaining 12 oil tankers whose location could not be confirmed by AFP on Monday were under US sanctions.
They are the Volans, Lydya N, Lyra, Merope, Min Hang, M Sophia, Nayara (also known as Themis), Olina (Minerva M), Rosalin (Nurkez), Thalia III, and the Veronica (Pegas), according to a list provided to AFP by the commercial information platform Kpler.
The final oil tanker, the Sea Maverick, is not under US sanctions but those of Britain and the European Union for suspected links to the so-called phantom fleet of ships transporting Russian oil.
Most of the oil tankers which left Venezuela these past days have cut off their AIS transponders or have transmitted false GPS location signals.
The US blockade could affect up to 600 oil tankers under US sanctions, according to an AFP analysis of data provided by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and the International Maritime Organization.