- Move is the first known tanker seizure since construction in the US began.
- Signals new effort to go after Venezuela’s main source of revenue.
- Its impact on global oil supplies is unclear.
WASHINGTON: The United States has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a move that sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas
“We just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, big tanker, very big, the biggest ever, actually, and other things are happening,” said Trump, who has pressured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to resign.
Asked what would happen to the oil, Trump said: “We’ll keep it, I think.”
Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela. This incident was the first known action against an oil tanker since he ordered a massive military buildup in the region. The United States has carried out raids against suspected drug containers, raising concerns among lawmakers and legal experts.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that the FBI, Homeland Security and Coast Guard, along with support from the US military, executed a seizure warrant on a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
A 45-second video released by Bondi showed two helicopters approaching a vessel and gunmen in camouflage rappelling onto it.
Trump administration officials have not named the vessel. British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the tanker Skipper was believed to have been seized off Venezuela early on Wednesday. The United States has imposed sanctions on the tanker for what Washington said was involvement in Iranian oil trade when it was called the Adisa.
The skipper left Venezuela’s main oil port in Jose between Dec. 4 and 5 after loading about 1.1 million barrels of Venezuela’s heavy crude oil Merey, according to satellite data analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
Oil futures rose on news of the seizure. After trading in negative territory, Brent crude futures rose 27 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $62.21 a barrel.
Maduro spoke Wednesday at a march commemorating a military battle without addressing reports of the tanker’s seizure.
Impact on oil?
Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) last month, the third-highest monthly average so far this year, as PDVSA imported more naphtha to dilute its extra-heavy oil output. Although Washington increased pressure on Maduro, the United States had not yet moved to disrupt oil flows.
Venezuela has had to deeply cut its crude in its main buyer, China, due to increasing competition with sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran.
“This is just another geopolitical/sanctions headwind hammering spot supply availability,” said Rory Johnston, analyst at Commodity Context.
“Seizing this tanker raises additional concerns about supply, but also doesn’t immediately fundamentally change the situation because these barrels would already be floating around for quite some time,” Johnston said.
Chevron, which is partnering with PDVSA, said its operations in the country were normal and continuing without interruption.
The company responsible for all Venezuelan crude exports to the United States last month increased crude oil exports to the United States to about 150,000 bpd from 128,000 bpd in October.
Increasing pressure on Maduro
Maduro has claimed that the US military build-up is aimed at toppling him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s vast oil reserves.
Since the beginning of September, the Trump administration has carried out more than 20 attacks against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
Experts say the strikes may be illegal as little or no evidence has been made public that the boats are carrying drugs or that it was necessary to blow them out of the water rather than stop them, seize their cargo and question them on board.
Concerns about the strikes rose this month after reports that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second attack that killed two survivors.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday found that a wide range of Americans oppose the US military’s campaign of deadly attacks on the boats, including about a fifth of Trump’s Republicans.
In a sweeping strategy document released last week, Trump said his administration’s foreign policy focus would be on reasserting its dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
