US Treasury/OFAC designates six shipping companies and six tankers in Venezuela's oil sector

Mechanism

OFAC added six shipping companies and their tanker assets to the SDN List under Executive Order 13850 ("Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela"), which authorizes blocking of persons operating in Venezuela's oil sector. The designated companies and vessels:

All six vessels are crude-oil tankers that Treasury says loaded Venezuelan crude in September/October 2025 and used deceptive shipping practices — AIS transponder manipulation, ship-to-ship transfers — characteristic of the same shadow-fleet tactics OFAC has targeted in Iran- and Russia-sanctions enforcement. The blocking freezes any US-nexus assets of the companies and vessels and prohibits US persons from transacting with them.

The same press release also designated, under separate legal authorities: Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas (nephews of Cilia Flores, EO 14059 counter-narcotics), Carlos Erik Malpica Flores (re-designation as a former PDVSA/government official, EO 13692), and Ramon Carretero Napolitano (a Panamanian businessman facilitating Venezuelan government petroleum shipments, EO 13850). These are individual designations rather than trade-control instruments and do not change the sectoral scope of this action beyond the shipping-network component above.

No specific cargo tonnage or transaction value was disclosed by Treasury; severity here is anchored on the quantitative scope actually stated — 6 companies and 6 vessels designated in a single action, consistent with the scale of comparable single-tranche OFAC shadow-fleet actions.

Downstream implications

• Adds to a growing register of OFAC actions targeting the "shadow fleet"

logistics layer (flag-of-convenience registration, AIS spoofing, opaque beneficial ownership) used to move sanctioned Venezuelan and Iranian crude — raises compliance costs for tanker charterers, P&I insurers, and ship managers doing business with Marshall Islands/BVI-registered SPVs.

• UK-registered designee (Sino Marine Services Limited) signals continued US

willingness to designate entities domiciled in allied jurisdictions when tied to Venezuelan crude logistics, not just flag-of-convenience registries.

• Sits within the broader Maduro-regime pressure campaign (family-member

narcotics designations in the same release) rather than a standalone sectoral policy shift.

Open questions

• Whether any of the six vessels will reflag or be sold to new shell entities

to continue trading (a recurring pattern in prior OFAC tanker designations).

• Whether the UK will take parallel action against the London-area-registered

Sino Marine Services Limited under its own sanctions regime.