US pursuing third oil tanker near Venezuela, officials say

By Idrees Ali

Dec 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, officials told Reuters on Sunday, in what would be the second such operation this weekend and the third in less than a week.

One of the officials said the tanker was under sanctions. The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not give a specific location for the operation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a "blockade" of all oil tankers under sanctions entering and leaving Venezuela. 

Trump's pressure campaign on Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has included a ramped-up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near the South American nation. At least 100 people have been killed in the attacks.

The White House's National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Sunday that the first two oil tankers seized were operating on the black market and providing oil to sanctioned countries.

"And so I don't think that people need to be worried here in the U.S. that the prices are going to go up because of these seizures of these ships," Hassett said. "There's just a couple of them, and they were black market ships."

But one oil trader told Reuters that the seizures raise geopolitical risks and probably will push oil prices higher when Asian trading resumes on Monday. On the other hand, expectations of an end to the war in Ukraine could help keep oil's price gains in check, the trader said.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional writing by Helen Coster; Editing by Costas Pitas, Andrew Heavens, Sergio Non and Paul Simao)