A tanker meandering in the Caribbean near Venezuela underscores the steep hurdles to ramping up the country’s oil production after the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro. The Sea Maverick, which has been linked to the so-called dark fleet of tankers carrying sanctioned Russian oil, has been circling near the Venezuelan coast since early January after the U.S. intensified its blockade, according to analytics firm Vortexa. The vessel is carrying roughly 380,000 barrels of naphtha, a petroleum product Venezuela needs to thin out its thick, sludgy crude so it can flow through pipelines for export.
The Sea Maverick’s odds of unloading have shrunk further after Maduro’s capture. In an interview with Fox Business Network on January 8, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reaffirmed Washington’s intent to “knock Russia out of the Venezuelan oil market,” including by prohibiting the sale of Russian naphtha to Caracas.
The ship’s predicament shows the ripple effects of U.S. moves to control more of Venezuela’s oil riches. Without access to Russian diluent, Venezuelan crude production is at risk — and it remains unclear how quickly the U.S. can fill the gap by delivering naphtha from the Gulf Coast. Facing the blockade, the South American country has already started to shut wells as it runs out of storage space.
From a supply chain perspective, although Venezuela’s output has slumped after decades of underinvestment and isolation, U.S. President Donald Trump has said major oil companies will spend at least $100 billion to ramp up production. A shift to U.S. naphtha supply would expand the role of players such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, with strategic integration around PDVSA’s Orinoco Belt heavy crude fields, the Jose Terminal export infrastructure and Citgo’s U.S. refinery network. OPEC+ balances, Brent Crude spreads and WTI price action will all carry the weight of this geopolitical realignment through 2026.
