First Venezuelan Oil Tanker Sails to US Louisiana Port

The first tanker carrying Venezuelan crude oil has departed directly for the United States under a newly agreed supply deal between Caracas and Washington, according to shipping documents and data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

Records show that a tanker chartered by commodities trader Trafigura left Venezuela’s Jose port on Sunday loaded with nearly one million barrels of heavy Venezuelan crude, bound for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) in the United States.

The shipment marks the first direct delivery of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. under a 50-million-barrel supply agreement reached earlier this month between the two countries.

In comments published by the New York Post on Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States had seized oil from confiscated Venezuelan tankers and was refining it domestically.

“Let’s be clear, they don’t have any oil. We’re taking the oil,” Trump said, adding that the crude is being processed at refineries in multiple locations, including Houston.

This month, Vitol and Trafigura received the first U.S. licenses allowing them to load and export Venezuelan crude as part of the deal. Since then, both firms have shipped oil to Caribbean storage hubs, from where the crude was marketed and sold to refiners worldwide.

According to shipping data, the Liberia-flagged tanker Gloria Maris is carrying approximately one million barrels of heavy Venezuelan crude, making it the first vessel to send oil directly from Venezuela to a U.S. port since the agreement came into effect.

Meanwhile, LSEG data also showed that the Barbados-flagged tanker Volans, a smaller vessel, departed Jose port on Sunday carrying around 450,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude destined for a storage terminal in Curaçao.

The U.S. military has seized seven oil tankers linked to Venezuela since the start of Trump’s month-long campaign to take control of Caracas’ oil flows. Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. administration had obtained 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, some of which is being sold on the open market.