US scraps two seized oil tankers after Venezuela operation

The United States government has sold two sanctioned oil tankers for scrap, months after they were seized during a naval operation linked to Venezuela. The vessels were purchased last month by Global Marketing Systems, a Dubai-based ship recycling firm, for an undisclosed amount.

The tankers, identified as the Era and the Lileo, will be dismantled at scrap yards in India. Both vessels had been operating under different names — the Era was previously known as Marinera and Bella 1, while the Lileo had sailed as Galileo and Veronica.

Anil Sharma, CEO of Global Marketing Systems, acknowledged the transaction involved legal complexities. "The U.S. government has sold them to us and there was a court order authorizing the sales, but there are complexities, not least the fact that we weren't really sure who previously owned them," he said.

The Era, a Russian-flagged tanker, was intercepted in January in waters south of Iceland after a weeks-long pursuit across the Atlantic. It had earlier breached a U.S. blockade in the Caribbean that was intended to halt oil exports from Venezuela. Washington stated the vessel had been used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

The Lileo, also Russian-flagged, was seized in the Caribbean Sea in January and was subject to U.S. sanctions against Russia.

U.S. authorities captured up to ten oil tankers following their military action in Venezuela. Sanctioned vessels frequently change names to avoid detection, complicating efforts to track their movements and ownership.