According to two sources familiarized with Venezuela's oil-export operations, Venezuela approved on Thursday the departure of two very large crude carriers (VLCC). This would be just the second and third supertankers since last week, when a ship carrying Venezuelan oil was seized by U.S. authorities.

The US sanctions list does not include the tankers. sanctions list. The United States said that it would not permit any vessels sanctioned to leave Venezuelan water. According to documents provided by the state-owned PDVSA, each tanker is carrying 1.9 million barrels of Venezuelan Merey Heavy Crude.

One source said that the?ships planned to navigate without their tracking transponder. Reporting by Aizhu Chan, Marianna Pararaga and Staff

(source: Reuters)