US seizes oil tanker off Venezuela

The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, a marked escalation in the conflict brewing between the two countries.

“As you probably know, we have just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela – a large tanker, very large – the largest one ever seized, actually,” he said at the beginning of a public roundtable at the White House focused on the economy. “Other things are happening, so you’ll be seeing that later, and you’ll be talking about that later with some other people.”

Shortly before the president’s announcement, Bloomberg reported the seizure of “a sanctioned oil tanker,” citing a “a senior Trump administration official,” who called it a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” most recently docked in Venezuela.

The move is expected to have a chilling effect on Venezuela’s oil industry, according to Bloomberg.

This story is developing.