The ship was originally sanctioned under the Biden administration in 2022.
Trump's being his usual jack ass self "I guess we keep it!"
Even if it does serve Trump's purposes with his Venezuela push, it's not random piracy. And trying to run that ship out of Venezuela while the U.S. is sitting right there with its Navy was certainly a choice.
People can find an original 2022 article about it here:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-sanctioned-oil-tanker-stuck-indonesia-carries-venezuelan-fuel-2022-11-09/
A grounded oil supertanker under U.S. Treasury Department sanctions being refloated in Indonesia is filled with Venezuelan fuel, according to vessel monitoring services.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control last week imposed sanctions on the stranded tanker, Young Yong, for its part in an international oil smuggling network that Washington said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force.
The Guardian also did a deep dive on all this in 2023:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/18/how-a-burnt-out-abandoned-ship-reveals-the-secrets-of-a-shadow-tanker-network
Since then the shadow fleet has only grown bigger. In December 2022, the G7, the European Union and Australia agreed to a price cap on Russian oil in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Under the terms of the deal, insurers are prohibited from covering vessels which sell oil above the maximum price set by those western powers.
In their 2023 safety and shipping review, insurer Allianz noted that the growing list of sanctions against Russia mean that the number of shadow tankers could now number “more than 600, or roughly a fifth of the overall global crude oil tanker fleet”.
“Vessels are more likely to be older ships … with lower maintenance standards. Reports indicate there were at least eight groundings, collisions or near misses involving tankers carrying sanctioned oil products in 2022,” says Justus Heinrich, from Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.
“The increase in the number of shadow tankers is a worrying development, threatening the world fleet and the environment.”
People probably should have maybe read up on this one before popping off on Twitter. Particularly the, uh, "experts"
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