US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Trump says

In a dramatic escalation of tensions with Venezuela, the United States has seized an oil tanker off the country’s coast, marking an unusual use of military force to apply pressure on President Nicolás Maduro’s government. President Donald Trump announced the operation Wednesday, describing it as the capture of “a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually.”

The seizure was carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard with support from the Navy. Coast Guard personnel were transported to the tanker, identified as the Skipper, via helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which has been stationed in the Caribbean Sea as part of a substantial American military buildup in the region.

“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela… it was seized for a very good reason,” Trump told reporters at the White House. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the vessel, Trump responded, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”

Video of the operation shared on social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows personnel fast-roping from helicopters onto the ship’s deck and moving throughout the vessel with weapons drawn. Bondi stated that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”

According to documents from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA, the ship departed Venezuela around December 2 carrying approximately 2 million barrels of heavy crude. Roughly half of this cargo reportedly belonged to a Cuban state-run oil importer.

Maritime records indicate the Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, a vessel sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 for allegedly being part of a shadow fleet that smuggled oil on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. U.S. officials claimed at the time that this network was operated by a Switzerland-based Ukrainian oil trader.

Venezuela’s government immediately condemned the action, calling it “a blatant theft and an act of international piracy” in an official statement. “Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed… It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement continued.

The seizure represents the latest in a series of increasingly aggressive moves by the Trump administration against Venezuela. The U.S. has built up its largest military presence in the Caribbean region in decades and launched numerous strikes on vessels allegedly involved in drug smuggling. The campaign has resulted in at least 87 deaths across 22 known strikes since early September, according to reports.

Venezuela, which possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels daily, has been increasingly reliant on intermediaries and allies like Russia and Iran to circumvent U.S. sanctions. These transactions typically involve complex networks of shell companies and so-called “ghost tankers” that obscure their locations and transfer cargo at sea.

The military action has drawn criticism from some U.S. lawmakers. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, challenged the administration’s stated counternarcotics justification for the military buildup, saying, “This shows that their whole cover story — that this is about interdicting drugs — is a big lie. This is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change — by force.”

Naval historian Vincent P. O’Hara called the seizure “very unusual” and “provocative,” noting that such actions will likely deter maritime traffic near Venezuela, effectively strangling its economy.

The operation comes just a day after U.S. military fighter jets flew over the Gulf of Venezuela, in what appears to be the closest American warplanes have come to the country’s airspace. President Trump has indicated that land attacks may be forthcoming, though he has not provided specific details.

While Maduro did not directly address the seizure during a speech in Caracas, he told supporters that Venezuela is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary,” and has insisted that the ultimate U.S. goal is to force him from office.