Oil prices rose this week after Donald Trump declared a “total blockade” on US-sanctioned tankers heading to and from Venezuela, escalating a stand-off with the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.
The US president said in a Thursday interview with NBC that he would not rule out war with Venezuela, and that more oil tankers would be seized. “If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbours,” he said.
Washington has already seized the Skipper, a stateless tanker, off Venezuela this month, after the US built up a major naval presence in the Caribbean and launched a campaign of lethal strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs.