Venezuelan Navy Escorts Vessels After Trump’s Blockade Threat

The Venezuelan government was said to have ordered the escort, according to two people familiar with the matter. It was not immediately clear whether the vessels were subject to U.S. sanctions.

Venezuela’s government has ordered its Navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products from port, escalating the risk of a confrontation with the United States after President Trump ordered a “blockade” aimed at the country’s oil industry.

Several ships sailed from the country’s east coast with a naval escort between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to three people familiar with the matter. The vessels departed just hours after Mr. Trump said he intended to blockade sanctioned oil tankers that do business with Venezuela.

The ships — transporting urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products — left the Port of José bound for Asian markets, said two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter. The Venezuelan government imposed the military escort in response to Mr. Trump’s threats, they said.

Vessels traveling with the escort did not appear on a current list of U.S. sanctioned ships, making it unclear whether they could be subject to Mr. Trump’s blockade. Mr. Trump said on Tuesday he was focused on oil tankers that have violated U.S. trade sanctions.

The third person familiar with the matter, a U.S. official, said Washington was aware of escorts and was considering various courses of action, but declined to provide details.

Venezuela’s state oil company, known as PDVSA, said in a statement on Wednesday that ships connected to its operations were continuing to sail “with full security, technical support and operational guarantees in legitimate exercise of their right to free navigation.”

Mr. Trump had announced on Tuesday evening that he was imposing a “total and complete blockade” of tankers to and from Venezuela that had violated U.S. trade sanctions. Roughly 40 percent of the tankers that have transported Venezuelan crude in recent years have been placed under U.S. sanctions, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com.

U.S. law enforcement officials last week seized an Asia-bound sanctioned tanker carrying nearly two million barrels of Venezuelan crude, a major escalation of Mr. Trump’s standoff with Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, whose government derives the bulk of its revenues from oil exports.

U.S. officials have said in private in recent days that additional tankers carrying Venezuelan oil may be seized, without providing additional details.

Mr. Maduro has reacted to the seizure with anger and vowed to keep the oil exports flowing at all cost, said one of the three people.

Nicholas Nehamas and Rebecca F. Elliott contributed reporting.

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