'In dark mode': Venezuelan oil tankers allegedly broke US blockade, sailed secretly before Maduro’s arrest

In the tense wake of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s dramatic capture, at least a dozen oil tankers laden with Venezuelan crude and fuel have quietly slipped out of the country’s waters “in dark mode,” according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com. Essentially, this means the ships turn off their tracking systems to evade detection and move unnoticed.

All of the vessels identified by maritime monitors are under US sanctions, and their sudden departures come amid a strict oil blockade imposed by the United States that has brought Venezuela’s once‑busy oil exports to a near standstill.

Quietly breaking the blockade

The so‑called “dark mode” manoeuvres appear to be a way for Venezuelan crude to bypass the US naval blockade and sanctions regime.

“In dark mode,” the tankers disable their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, making it harder for external observers—including US authorities—to track their movements.

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A separate group of sanctioned ships also left Venezuelan waters in recent days empty, after finishing domestic trips or unloading imported cargo. At least four of the oil carriers were observed leaving through a route north of Margarita Island, near Venezuela’s maritime border, after brief stops just offshore, satellite data showed, as per a Reuters report.

For Venezuela’s battered oil industry, these departures could offer some relief. The state‑run oil company PDVSA has been struggling with massive floating inventories due to the export blockade, as onshore storage has filled up and production has slowed.

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Oil remains Venezuela’s main source of revenue, and the interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez needs every drop to stabilise the economy.

However, it’s still unclear whether the tankers’ moves violate US sanctions outright. President Donald Trump has insisted that the “oil embargo” on Venezuela remains in place, even as he acknowledged that under the transitional government, major consumers such as China might continue receiving Venezuelan oil.

The tanker movements have unfolded against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving Venezuelan crisis. US forces captured Maduro in a high‑profile operation that shocked the world, and he has since been moved to New York to face federal charges.