Venezuela Oil Ship Logjam Highlights Deeper US Blockade Pain

Venezuelan oil exports — measure by ship loadings — fell to a 17-month low in December amid a US naval blockade designed to bring the illicit oil trade to a halt.

A closer look reveals the situation is far worse. While ships loaded 423,000 barrels a day, more than half of that volume never left Venezuelan waters, amid threats of seizure by US forces, according to shipping reports, data from Kpler and vessel movements tracked by Bloomberg.