The US Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a vessel in international waters near Venezuela as tensions in the region continue to escalate.
US authorities have already seized two oil tankers this month - one of them on Saturday.
Sunday's pursuit is related to a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela's illegal sanctions evasion, a US official told the BBC's partner CBS News. It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of using oil money to fund drug-related crime, while Venezuela has described the tanker seizures as piracy.
According to the New York Times (NYT), late on Saturday the US Coast Guard approached an oil tanker, which US officials said was not flying a valid national flag.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard identified the tanker as Bella 1, a very large crude oil carrier reportedly on its way to Venezuela to pick up oil.
The US added the Bella 1 to its sanctions list last year for allegedly carrying sanctioned cargo.
When it added the Bella 1 to its sanctions list, the US Treasury Department accused its registered owner of having links to Iran and of providing support to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The NYT reports the tanker did not submit to being boarded and fled northeast into the Atlantic Ocean with the US Coast Guard in pursuit.
The Bella 1 is the third oil tanker to be targeted by the US in waters off Venezuela.
On 10 December, the Coast Guard seized the Skipper, which US Attorney General Pam Bondi said was used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela to Iran. The Skipper has since been taken under escort to Galveston in Texas.
On Saturday, Coast Guard personnel boarded a tanker with the name Centuries written on its side. While the Centuries does not appear on the US Treasury's list of sanctioned vessels, the White House stated that it carried oil from Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the Centuries was operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime.
The seizure of the tankers is the latest development in the US's pressure campaign against the government of Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro. Since Trump resumed office in January, the US has doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro's capture, declared his government a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), and last week ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers. As the Venezuelan government heavily relies on profits from oil exports, these latest moves have drawn significant outrage from Venezuelan officials.
President Maduro condemned the seizure of the Centuries and the pursuit of the Bella 1 as piracy, asserting that the US is attempting to seize Venezuela's oil wealth. Venezuela's request for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council is set to address what Caracas describes as ongoing US aggression.
In a show of support for Venezuela, China’s foreign ministry called out the unilateral and illegal sanctions that lack a basis in international law or authorisation by the United Nations Security Council, reiterating Venezuela's right to independently develop and cooperate with other nations.
