OFAC unveils sweeping framework for Venezuela oil
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday unveiled a broad new sanctions framework aimed at reopening significant portions of Venezuela’s energy and mining sectors to U.S. and allied companies, while explicitly authorizing shipping, insurance, and logistics activities needed to support exports.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued updated versions of seven Venezuela-related general licenses covering oil exports, U.S. diluent sales, energy services, mining activities, transactions involving state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), and operations by major international energy companies.
The measures replace licenses first issued earlier this year and establish what appears to be a comprehensive legal framework governing commercial engagement with Venezuela’s oil, gas, petrochemical, electricity, and mineral sectors.
Donald administration touts progress on nation’s first offshore lng export facility
The Trump administration is touting a major milestone for U.S. energy exports after Delfin Midstream reached a final investment decision (FID) on the first phase of its offshore liquefied natural gas export project off the coast of Louisiana.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) on Tuesday highlighted the $5 billion investment in Delfin FLNG 1, which is expected to become the first floating LNG export facility operating in U.S. waters when it enters service later this decade.
The announcement follows Delfin’s June 3 disclosure that a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners, now part of BlackRock, had approved funding for the project’s first floating liquefaction vessel. Existing investors include Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Vitol, and Diameter Capital Partners.
First seafarer casualties reported
At least two crew members were reported missing and one injured after U.S. forces disabled a tanker in the Gulf of Oman late Tuesday, in what appears to be the first reported seafarer casualties of Washington’s maritime blockade of Iran.
According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), U.S. forces disabled the Palau-flagged tanker M/T Settebello at approximately 11:14 p.m. on June 9 after the vessel allegedly failed to comply with instructions while transiting the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM said a U.S. aircraft fired precision munitions into the vessel’s engine room after the crew repeatedly ignored directions from American forces.
The military described the action as part of its ongoing effort to enforce the blockade against Iranian oil exports. “U.S. forces disabled Palau-flagged M/T Settebello as it transited the Gulf of Oman,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “A U.S. aircraft fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces.” The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency initially reported an incident involving a tanker approximately 20 nautical miles northeast of Sohar, Oman. Local authorities reported an engine room fire and launched an evacuation effort after receiving distress calls from the vessel.
Donald claims covert U.S. operation helped 200 ships Transit Hormuz
President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed the U.S. military has been conducting a previously undisclosed operation to help commercial vessels transit the Strait of Hormuz, marking the clearest public acknowledgment yet that Washington has been actively facilitating shipping through the strategic waterway despite repeatedly denying the resumption of formal escort operations.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he directed the U.S. military last month to execute a “secret mission” supporting oil tankers and other commercial ships moving through the Strait.
“Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait,” Trump wrote.
Through Hormuz oil tankers go dark to sneak more Gulf barrels
Off the coast of Oman over the weekend, 16 tankers clustered together to transfer millions of barrels of oil that had been stranded in the Persian Gulf. A month ago, that area had been entirely empty.
They’re part of a growing number of tankers that are turning their transponders off to lift oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz from a trickle to a stream. While conventional vessel-tracking data show little change in shipments, senior shipping executives, Asian oil buyers and satellite images paint a different picture: That Hormuz is now a lot less blocked, with transits becoming more steady and greater in volume.
Armed security repels suspected pirate attack off Yemen
A merchant vessel transiting off Yemen’s southern coast exchanged gunfire with an armed small craft on Tuesday in an incident that appears more consistent with piracy than the missile and drone attacks that have characterized the regional conflict involving the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen.
According to UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a cargo vessel reported being approached by a small craft carrying six armed individuals approximately 88 nautical miles southwest of Balhaf, Yemen.
“There was an exchange of fire between the small craft and the cargo vessel’s Armed Security Team resulting in the small craft turning away,” UKMTO said in an advisory. Authorities are investigating the incident.
Airbus goes to sea
Last weekend’s launch of a ro-ro cargo vessel at a riverside shipyard in Wuhan may not have commanded the same attention as an Airbus A320 rolling off the production line in Toulouse or Mobile, but the two events are more closely connected than they might appear.
The vessel that entered the water at the Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group facility on the Yangtze that Friday morning, named Spirit of Mobile, is one of three purpose-built ships that will carry the wings, fuselage sections, engine pylons, and tail assemblies of single-aisle Airbus jets across the Atlantic, and in doing so test whether a combination of century-old wind technology, alternative fuels, and artificial intelligence routing software can genuinely halve the maritime carbon footprint of one of the world’s largest aerospace programs.