U.S. Seizes Oil Tanker Off the Coast of Venezuela

Curious aspect ...

A Billion-Barrel Oil Glut Is Forming at Sea
www.wsj.com

... The oil market is grappling with whether sanctioned Russian and Iranian cargoes should still be counted as supply. This may explain why oil prices have been slow to react to a huge glut that is building on the ocean.

There are 1.4 billion barrels of oil "on the water." That is 24% higher than the average for this time of year between 2016 and 2024, according to oil-analytics firm Vortexa. The data measures shipments that are on their way to be unloaded at a port, or cargoes that haven't yet found a buyer. ...

And ...

(no paywall on this one)

Trafigura Warns of "Super Glut" as Oil Supply Surges
oilprice.com

... Echoing what has become a now daily refrain by commodity bears everywhere, Saad Rahim, chief economist of commodity-trading giant, Trafigura, said that the oil market faces a "super glut" next year as a burst of new supply collides with weakness in the global economy. According to Rahim, new drilling projects and slowing demand growth would weigh further on already depressed crude prices next year.

"Whether it's a glut, or a super glut, it's hard to get away from that," Rahim said in remarks alongside the company's annual results.

Brent crude has fallen 16% this year, on track for its worst year since 2020. Prices are expected to be further damped by major projects coming online next year, including in Brazil and Guyana.

The glut thesis is hardly new, and has been popularized by banks such as Citi and Goldman for the past year. As Goldman analyst Daan Struyven wrote in his latest oil tracker note, "global visible oil stocks have built by nearly 2mb/d over the past 30 days." The banks expects them to grow significantly more in the coming years. ...

OK, I have two questions ...

1) what is the justification of Pres Trump's "drill, baby, drill" mantra?

2) why spend US taxpayers' dollars apparently to intimidate Venezuela for its oil to keep the Big-Oil wealthy happy?

Wait, so the sudden crisis over Venezuela wasn't really about drugs at all. It was about oil.

Well, pump my derrick and call me Nancy! No way, Jose!

what is the justification of Pres Trump's "drill, baby, drill" mantra?

It sounds good and fits on a bumper sticker.

Trump has successfully conflated the Drug War with the Oil Wars. Fascinating.

@#15 ... Wait, so the sudden crisis over Venezuela wasn't really about drugs at all. It was about oil. ...

That's my supposition at this point.

There does seems to be little justification for Pres Trump's action regarding drugs from Venezuela.

So then, I looked around and discovered the huge oil wealth of Venezuela.

Oil reserves in Venezuela
en.wikipedia.org

... The proven oil reserves in Venezuela are recognized as the largest in the world, totaling 300 billion barrels (4.81010 m3) as of 1 January 2014.[1] The 2019 edition of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy reports the total proved reserves of 303.3 billion barrels for Venezuela (slightly more than Saudi Arabia's 297.7 billion barrels).[2] ...

@#17 ... Trump has successfully conflated the Drug War with the Oil Wars. Fascinating. ...

Stated differently, Pres Trump apparently has so far been successful in the expensive taxpayer-funded deployment of the US Military against Venezuela for the purpose of propping up the profits of Big-Oil.

You forgot:

*Thank you for your attention to this matter.

#18 | Posted by LampLighter

The US Navy commandeering (i.e., pirating) an oil vessel and publicly stating "We're keeping the oil" proves that you're on point.

publicly stating "We're keeping the oil"

That ship is a weeks worth of oil imports to China from Venezuela. I wonder if they noticed?

@#21 ... you're on point. ...

Sometimes I get lucky in the opinions I express here.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said later Wednesday that a seizure warrant for the crude oil tanker was executed by the FBI, the Homeland Security Department's investigations unit and the U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the Pentagon.

I'll believe it when I see a copy of the warrant posted on a court website until then I call BS.

Seizure of oil tanker marks new level of tensions between US and Venezuela
www.theguardian.com

... US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, in a major escalation of Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign against the South American country's dictator, Nicols Maduro.

Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, posted footage of the seizure on X. The grainy, unclassified 45-second video shows US forces landing on the tanker from a helicopter.

In an accompanying statement, Bondi said the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US Coast Guard, with support from the Department of Defense, had "executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran".

Venezuela's government made no immediate comment on the seizure " but speaking at a rally in Caracas, Maduro urged citizens to act like "warriors" and be ready "to smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary". ...

Yeah, an escalation.

But why?