Shadow Fleet on Edge After U.S. Seizes Tanker in Venezuelan Waters

The United States has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking a major escalation in tensions between Washington and Caracas. President Trump confirmed the operation, saying, "We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually". He then went on to warn that "other things are happening so you'll be seeing that later." When asked what the U.S. would do with the tanker, the President responded, "We keep it, I guess... I assume we're going to keep the oil."

U.S. authorities, including the Coast Guard, FBI, and Homeland Security, executed a seizure warrant, boarding the tanker by helicopter. The vessel, identified by maritime sources as the Panama-flagged “Skipper” (formerly named “Adisa”), had been under U.S. sanctions for several years for its alleged role in transporting Venezuelan and Iranian crude via a shadow oil-shipping network tied to Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

According to tracking data, the tanker had recently loaded heavy crude at Venezuela’s Puerto José. U.S. officials say the seizure is part of an intensified campaign of maritime interdiction by Washington, a strategy that appears to be expanding the use of naval power beyond sanctions, with the objective of targeting illicit oil trade and networks tied to sanctioned regimes.