After the U.S. military seized a large crude oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, President Donald Trump suggested the ship’s contents could remain in U.S. possession.
“Well, we keep it, I guess,” Trump told reporters Wednesday during a business roundtable at the White House, hours after the Guyana-flagged Skipper was seized.
But similar seizures in the past have led to the sale of confiscated assets. The question now is where the oil from the Venezuelan ship may end up and how the proceeds will be distributed.
Matt Smith, head U.S. analyst at energy consulting firm Kpler, told CNBC that Skipper was covertly loaded with 1.1 million barrels of oil in mid-November and appeared to be headed for Cuba. Though the tanker flew Guyana flags, the country’s Maritime Administration Department said in a statement on Wednesday that the ship was not registered in Guyana.
“In past instances, mainly involving Iran, the oil is sold and the US government kept the proceeds. There’s a civil asset forfeiture process,” said Bob McNally, founder and president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House energy advisor to President George W. Bush.
