The boss of Venezuelan state shipowner PDV Marina has been arrested along with 30 tanker crew members in a fuel smuggling probe.
At least 38 workers were detained in total as the government accused them of "treason".
The staff include some from PDV Marina parent PDVSA, the country's national oil company.
The moves were confirmed by Venezuelan interior minister Nestor Reverol, who said on live television: “This is not simply an act of diverting fuel. It is also an act of treason...because people are lining up at service stations for fuel because of US empire’s sanctions.”
The detentions came days after other state officials were detained amid a shakeup at PDVSA. President Nicolas Maduro last month named a committee to restructure the nation’s oil industry, which has been hit by US sanctions aimed at removing him, Reuters reported.
PDV Marina president Oswaldo Vargas was escorted without handcuffs from the Caracas headquarters of maritime authority INEA by military intelligence agency DGCIM, six sources confirmed to Reuters.
Tanker changed course
In addition to Vargas, agents also detained his assistant, six Paraguana refinery workers and 30 crew members from PDV Marina's 47,000-dwt MR tanker Negra Hipolita (built 1996).
Reverol said authorities had been tipped off by oil workers.
He said Negra Hipolita left Paraguana on 5 March loaded with 126,000 barrels of fuel bound for the port of La Guaira, near Caracas, but it allegedly turned off the radar and GPS system.
It is then accused of changing course to sail between Venezuela and the Netherlands Antilles, “where they illegally sold hydrocarbons to unknown individuals through a transfer operation to a vessel with a Colombian flag", the state TV report added.
Cesar Vladimir Romero Salazar has been appointed the new head of PDV Marina, according to a notice in a government gazette.
Last week, two managers in the PDVSA trade and supply division were held after being accused of collaborating with the US.
And a Venezuelan court also ordered the seizure of the assets of six private shipping agencies in the country over money allegedly owed to PDVSA for terminal fees, anchorage and tug services.
In addition, the head of the lubricants division of PDVSA was arrested on allegations of corruption.
PDV Marina controls 55 tankers and tugs including three suezmaxes, plus aframaxes and MRs.
PDVSA has been struggling with cash flow due to the US sanctions and the country's economic collapse.
Ship arrested in Singapore
Last year, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) arrested one of its tankers in Singapore.
The shipmanager filed an SGD 2.6m ($1.92m) claim against the 113,200-dwt Arita (built 2015) for unpaid bunker bills, crew wages, ship chandler services, shiprepair costs and provision of services.
Until recently, BSM managed 15 of PDVSA’s tankers, including two VLCCs jointly owned by China’s PetroChina.
But with the US taking a tough stance against the state-owned Venezuelan oil company and all in shipping who deal with it, that long-standing relationship has come to an end.
In February, Reuters revealed that BSM was pulling its crews from PDVSA’s tankers due to the inability of the oil company’s shipping subsidiaries to provide funds to cover wages and operating expenses.
