The U.S. crosses a legal threshold: the seizure of the tanker ‘Centuries’ establishes that mere suspicion regarding the cargo origin is enough for confiscation, without prior sanctions. This precedent turns Venezuelan oil into an illicit good per se and increases the risk of sanctions for any global company involved in its commercial chain.
Content: La Tabla/Data Journalism Platform 21 DEC 2022
In a drastic shift of strategy, the U.S. government executed yesterday the first seizure of an oil vessel not previously sanctioned, based solely on its transport of Venezuelan crude.
The operation against the tanker “Centuries” on December 20, justified only by the suspicion of carrying “oil subject to sanctions,” marks the transition from a policy targeting specific vessels to one that targets the cargo based on its mere national origin.
This precedent implies that any player in the global supply chain – from shippers to end buyers – can now be considered an accomplice to an illicit act simply by dealing with a resource designated as “blocked property” by Washington, without the need for a judicial order substantiating a specific crime.
Analysis of the new paradigm:
The confiscation of the M/T Centuries IMO: 9206310 was not a repeat of the operation against the “Skipper” from the previous week. It inaugurates a broader and more discretionary extraterritorial application doctrine. The difference is legally fundamental:
Central Implication: Under this new logic, the designation of a foreign entity (like PDVSA) by the U.S. Treasury becomes an omnipotent mechanism. It not only freezes the direct assets of that entity but also declares all its commercial production illegal and authorizes its pursuit and confiscation worldwide, even if the carrier is an unrelated third party and without a judicial process proving a specific crime of that third party.
Immediate consequence: The risk expands exponentially throughout the chain. A bank providing finance, an insurer offering coverage, a refinery processing, or a company purchasing derivatives of that crude could all fall under the broad definition of “dealing with blocked property,” subjecting themselves to secondary sanctions or legal actions, regardless of their knowledge or intentions.
This maneuver formally equates the trade of a sovereign energy resource with drug trafficking, where the substance is illegal per se, establishing a dangerous precedent of geopolitical discretion in law enforcement at sea, where administrative suspicion substitutes judicial sentences.