Trio of ghost ships left in Venezuela limbo after Maduro’s exit

Three dark fleet tankers that loaded Venezuelan oil before the ousting of leader Nicolás Maduro remain stranded in the country, underscoring how its oil industry is still disentangling itself from years of sanctions evasion.

All three vessels are positioned less than 10 miles from the Venezuelan coast, according to a government report reviewed by Bloomberg that includes their precise location. They’re among the last remnants of a period when more than half of Venezuela’s crude exports — the main source of revenues for the Maduro regime — was transported in ghost ships to buyers in Asia.

With global oil supplies strained by the near closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the stranded vessels highlight Venezuela’s struggle to fully operate transparently, even after the most sweeping US oil sanctions relief since 2019.

Supertankers Romana and MS Melenia, along with the ship Galaxy 3, loaded a combined 5 million barrels of crude in mid-December, the data shows. After the December 10 seizure of the tanker Skipper by US naval forces, the ghost ships remained in place and did not depart even after Maduro was toppled weeks later.

For months, oil traders have been attempting to gauge how many ghost ships remain in Venezuela as every barrel becomes more valuable amid a global supply squeeze triggered by the Iran war. Heavy, sulfurous oils like Venezuela’s are cheaper than light and sweet varieties, currently priced above $100.

The trio of tankers haven’t broadcast their location in months, suggesting they’ve disabled their transponders, a common practice used by dark fleet ships to avoid detection. They’re currently at an anchorage area off the government-controlled port of Jose, the country’s top oil-exporting terminal, according to the data and satellite imagery.

It’s unclear why they became stranded, while other dark ships have emerged from the shadows to transport US-compliant oil. The vast majority of Venezuelan oil exports are currently handled by companies including Chevron Corp., and commodity traders Vitol Group and Trafigura Group, which hold a license from the Trump administration to help market as much as 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil.

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