The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, an unusual and provocative move that intensifies the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro. The operation, carried out by the US Coast Guard with Navy support and launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, involved boarding the vessel by helicopter. US officials say the tanker — identified as the Skipper — had long been sanctioned for participating in an illicit oil network tied to Iran and Hezbollah, reports Aamer Madhani, Konstantin Toropin, Joshua Goodman, and Regina Garcia Cano of the Associated Press. Venezuela condemned the seizure as “piracy,” arguing it exposes US intentions to control the country’s natural resources. The action comes amid the largest US military buildup in the region in decades, a series of deadly maritime strikes, and growing congressional concern that the administration’s real objective is regime change, not counternarcotics operations. They write:
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro. […]
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.” […]
The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that it was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority. […]
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” […]
The ship departed Venezuela around Dec. 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA, that were provided on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have permission to share them.
The Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data. The Adisa was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a sophisticated network of shadow tankers that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. […]
Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”
Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
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