UPDATE 1-Trump administration to step up pressure campaign on Venezuelan oil

U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to step up a sanctions campaign on Venezuela's oil sector and will be more aggressive in punishing people and companies that violate it, the top U.S. envoy to the Latin American country said on Monday. Washington and dozens of other countries say Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president, and the administration has been trying to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro does have the support of Russia and China.

The United States imposed sanctions to choke off Venezuela's oil exports in the aftermath of Maduro's 2018 re-election, which was widely described as fraudulent, but because customers in China, India and elsewhere continued importing, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA's exports only fell by about a third. U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Reuters in an interview that Washington would go after continued customers of Venezuelan oil, including those in Asia, and target intermediaries helping Caracas hide the origin of its oil.

"The President has made a decision to push harder on the Venezuelan oil sector and we’re going to do it. And what we’re telling people involved in this sector is that they should get out of it," Abrams said. His comments come almost a week after the United States blacklisted Rosneft Trading SA, a Geneva-based trading unit of Russian energy giant Rosneft, to pressure Moscow to cut its support of Maduro.

Washington's ramped up pressure campaign is not going to focus solely on Russia, Abrams said, but will also target entities throughout the supply chain that allows any Venezuelan oil to reach buyers. The United States is examining ship-to-ship transfers intended to obfuscate the origin of an oil cargo, and name changes of companies involved in transactions of Venezuelan oil.

"What people do is switch from one company to another so the company that takes the oil may flip it to another company that ships the oil, flip it to another company that sells the oil. We follow all of that," he said. "We are going to follow up with the companies that are engaged in this and we are going to sanction them." The United States in January 2019 recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate interim president and ratcheted up pressure on Maduro. Maduro remains in power, backed by Venezuela's military as well as Russia, China, and Cuba. Trump demonstrated his support for Guaido by having him as a guest at the White House. 

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