An oil tanker docked at Cardón Refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, in 2021. More than 400 tankers have moved Venezuelan oil or related products since 2019, and these vessels are part of a bigger fleet of ships that trade oil illicitly.
The U.S. seizure of a vessel off Venezuela is likely to squeeze the country’s government, but do little to counter the tankers that secretively move oil from sanctioned countries.