- The move is the first known seizure of a tanker since the US buildup began.
- It signals a new effort to go after Venezuela’s main source of income.
- Its impact on global oil supply is unclear.
WASHINGTON: The United States has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, a move that raised oil prices and sharply increased tensions between Washington and Caracas.
“We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a large, very large oil tanker, the largest ever seen, in fact, and other things are happening,” said Trump, who has been pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to resign.
Asked what would happen to the oil, Trump said: “I guess we’ll keep it.”
Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela. This incident was the first known action against a tanker since he ordered a massive military buildup in the region. The United States has carried out attacks against suspected drug trafficking vessels, raising concerns among lawmakers and legal experts.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on
A 45-second video posted by Bondi showed two helicopters approaching a boat and armed individuals dressed in camouflage rappelling toward it.
Trump administration officials did not name the ship. British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the oil tanker Skipper is believed to have been seized off Venezuela early Wednesday. The United States imposed sanctions on the tanker for what Washington said was involvement in the Iranian oil trade when it was called Adisa.
The Skipper left Venezuela’s main oil port, José, between December 4 and 5 after loading about 1.1 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude oil, according to satellite data analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
Oil futures rose following news of the seizure. After trading in negative territory, Brent crude futures rose 27 cents, or 0.4%, to close at $62.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 21 cents, also 0.4%, to close at $58.46 a barrel.
Maduro spoke Wednesday at a march commemorating a military battle, without addressing reports of the oil tanker seizure.
Impact on oil?
Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil last month, the third-highest monthly average so far this year, as PDVSA imported more naphtha to dilute its extra-heavy oil production. Even as Washington increased pressure on Maduro, the United States had yet to take steps to interfere with oil flows.
Venezuela has had to deeply discount its crude from its main buyer, China, due to growing competition with sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran.
“This is just another geopolitical/sanctions headwind hitting spot supply availability,” said Rory Johnston, analyst at Commodity Context.
“The seizure of this tanker further inflames those concerns about immediate supply, but it also doesn’t immediately change the situation fundamentally because these barrels were already going to be floating around for a while,” Johnston said.
Chevron, which is a partner of PDVSA, said its operations in the country were normal and continued without interruption.
The company, responsible for all Venezuelan crude exports to the United States, last month increased crude exports to the United States to about 150,000 bpd from 128,000 bpd in October.
Growing pressure on Maduro
Maduro has alleged that the US military buildup is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s vast oil reserves.
Since early September, the Trump administration has carried out more than 20 attacks against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
Experts say the attacks may be illegal, as little or no evidence has been made public that the ships were carrying drugs or that it was necessary to remove them from the water rather than detain them, confiscate their cargo and question the people on board.
Concerns about the attacks increased this month after reports that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second attack that killed two survivors.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that a broad swath of Americans oppose the military’s campaign of deadly attacks on ships, including about a fifth of Trump’s Republicans.
In a sweeping strategy document released last week, Trump said his administration’s foreign policy would focus on reasserting dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
