United States seizure of the oil tanker Skipper

"Skipper (ship)" redirects here. For the American minesweeper, see USS Skipper.

United States seizure of the oil tanker Skipper
Part of Operation Southern Spear and 2025 United States naval deployment in the Caribbean
A video of the seizure of Skipper published by United States attorney general Pam Bondi on X
TypeShip seizure
Location
Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela
Planned by United States
TargetSanctioned oil tankers trading in and out of Venezuela
DateDecember 10, 2025 (2025-12-10)
Executed by
OutcomeSkipper and Centuries seized by the United States
CasualtiesNone

On 10 December 2025, the United States seized the oil tanker Skipper in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela as part of Operation Southern Spear. Skipper had been sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury in 2022 for alleged involvement in an oil trafficking shadow fleet of vessels involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. The seizure involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Homeland Security, the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard (USCG).

Skipper's crew did not resist the seizure and there were no casualties. The Venezuelan government condemned the seizure, describing it as an "act of international piracy".[1]

On 17 December, Trump announced a blockade targeting sanctioned oil tankers operating in and out of Venezuela and on 20 December, the USCG intercepted and boarded a second oil tanker.[2][3]

Background

Further information: United States–Venezuela relations

On 7 August 2025, the United States Department of Justice raised a reward for the arrest of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to US$50 million; Maduro was indicted by a US federal court in 2020 and is accused of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine to the United States.[4] Over the following months, the United States Navy conducted its largest naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.[5] As a part of the naval deployment, the US began launching air strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September. By 10 December, the United States had carried out 22 air strikes that killed at least 87 people.[6] The United States Air Force had also flown military aircraft near the Venezuelan coastline on several occasions.[7]

The Venezuelan economy is heavily reliant on oil exports. Venezuelan oil is extracted and exported by PDVSA, a state-run oil company. Oil production has significantly decreased since the early 2000s due to corruption, PDVSA mismanagement, and sanctions implemented on the country by the United States.[8] In March 2025, United States president Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14245 that placed a 25% tariff on any country that imported Venezuelan oil due to Venezuela being "very hostile".[9] In August, Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino López announced that the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela would be deployed to protect Venezuela's main oil hub.[10] Maduro has said that the United States wants to seize Venezuela's oil and announced in October that the Bolivarian Army of Venezuela was mobilized to repel a land invasion.[11]

Initial event

Ship

Skipper, previously named Adisa (IMO number 9304667), is owned by Triton Navigation Corp., based in the Marshall Islands[1][12][13] and operated by Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures.[14] At 310,309 DWT, it was built by Imabari Shipbuilding at Saijō, Ehime, Japan, in 2005 as yard number 2507, named Toyo and managed by the Japanese NYK Line.[15] The supertanker is a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), making it too large for some ports.[16]

In November 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury placed sanctions against Adisa, for allegedly being involved in an oil smuggling network that financed both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.[1][13] The network was led by a Ukrainian citizen living in Switzerland, Viktor Sergiyovitch Artemov, who was sanctioned by Office of Foreign Assets Control.[17] Artemov was a Russian oil magnate and was accused by the US of coordinating a global Iranian "oil smuggling network" with the help of Triton Navigation.[18]

According to a The New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and data from TankerTrackers.com, Skipper issued false transponder readings from October to December 2025 that falsified the ship's location. TankerTrackers.com co-founder Samir Madani referred to Skipper as being part of a "global dark fleet" of tankers that falsify their location information.[19] Moments before the seizure, the tanker was flying the Guyanese flag, despite not being registered in that country.[20] Reportedly, Skipper docked at least twice in Iran since July 2025, and in Hong Kong in August 2025.[17]

Seizure

On 10 December, ten United States Coast Guard personnel, ten United States Marine Corps personnel, and a number of special forces soldiers aboard two helicopters launched from USS Gerald R. Ford boarded and took control of Skipper shortly after it left a Venezuelan port.[1][21]

Skipper had left Puerto José in Venezuela on 4 December with about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil from PDVSA.[12][22] Soon after its departure, near Curaçao, the tanker offloaded a portion of its oil to another ship, Neptune 6, which was en route to Cuba. Skipper then turned east, headed towards Asia. The oil tanker was in international waters between Grenada and Trinidad when it was boarded by US forces.[23][24]

According to US attorney general Pam Bondi and anonymous US officials, Skipper was seized in accordance with a seizure warrant issued two weeks earlier by a federal judge for allegedly transporting "sanctioned oil".[8][22][25] The ship was seized on the day the warrant was set to expire.[26] Anonymous US officials stated to The New York Times that the sealed warrant was issued "because of the ship's past activities smuggling Iranian oil, not because of links to the Maduro government", while Bondi stated it had transported both Venezuelan and Iranian crude.[8][27]

Bondi posted a short video excerpt of the seizure on X, adding that it was "conducted safely and securely" and was part of an investigation "to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil".[1][5] According to The New York Times, three anonymous United States government officials said Skipper's crew did not resist, there were no casualties, and they expected that more seizures would occur in the following weeks as "part of the administration's efforts to weaken Mr. Maduro's government by undermining its oil market".[8]

Additional US sanctions and blockade

Further information: U.S. sanctions during the Venezuelan crisis

The US planned additional seizures of vessels transporting Venezuelan crude.[28][29]

The day after the Skipper seizure, additional sanctions targeting Maduro's family and oil shipments were imposed by the US.[30] Among those sanctioned were six companies and six vessels that had recently transported Venezuelan crude, and Ramón Carretero Napolitano, a Panamanian who allegedly had business ties to Maduro's family involving oil.[29][31][32]

On 17 December, Trump announced a blockade targeting sanctioned oil tankers trading in and out of Venezuela.[33]

As of 12 December, many tankers, some under US sanctions, were stuck in Venezuelan waters, leading to a sharp decline in crude exports. After the seizure of Skipper, only oil tankers linked to Chevron Corporation could travel through international waters with Venezuelan crude.[34] More than 30 ships in Venezuela that are sanctioned by the United States could also be seized, according to Reuters.[35]

Subsequent activity

On 20 December, the USCG boarded a second ship, the Panama-flagged Centuries, carrying 1.8 million barrels of crude oil off the coast of Venezuela,[2] reported as "intercepted" by Reuters.[3] According to The Washington Post, neither the vessel nor its owner are sanctioned entities, and an unnamed source said the boarding was based on a history of the vessel transporting oil to China, and a "right to visit" law that "allows a warship to board and inspect a vessel it suspects is engaging in illicit activity".[2] Permission to board was obtained from Panama.[2]

As of 21 December, the USCG was pursuing a third vessel, Bella 1.[36]

Analysis

The BBC characterized the seizure and additional sanctions as a "sharp escalation in the US pressure campaign against Maduro".[37] The Wall Street Journal described a "paralyzed tanker traffic" to Venezuelan ports—also documented by Reuters[28]—as "an existential crisis for a regime that runs on oil revenue" that "creates an escalating series of crises" that experts said could be destabilizing.[38]

Reactions

United States

When Trump confirmed the seizure of Skipper, he stated that "we've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela—a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually" and that it was "seized for a very good reason".[5] When Trump was asked what the United States would do with Skipper, he responded "we keep it, I guess".[22] Trump administration officials like Kristi Noem and Karoline Leavitt connected the oil tanker's seizure to the administration's war on drugs in Latin America.[39]

Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of Defense, wrote that – as part of Operation Southern Spear – the US would "unflinchingly conduct maritime interdiction operations ... to dismantle illicit criminal networks. Violence, drugs, and chaos will not control the Western Hemisphere."[40]

From the Republican Party, Senator Roger Marshall told reporters that the United States "should be pushing back on Venezuela", adding that he was "concerned about the drug cartel that is running" Venezuela, referring to Cartel of the Suns.[6] Senator Rand Paul told NewsNation reporter Hannah Brandt that the seizure "sounds a lot like the beginning of a war".[6] Representative Rick Crawford told NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas that the seizure was part of a "ongoing action" against Maduro's government, adding that it was "a pretty strong signal to Maduro".[41]

From the Democratic Party, Senator Chris Coons also told NewsNation that he was "gravely concerned that [Trump] is sleepwalking [the United States] into a war with Venezuela".[6] Senator Chris Van Hollen stated that seizure of Skipper demonstrated that the Trump administration wanted "regime change [in Venezuela]—by force".[7]

Venezuela

The Venezuelan government "strongly denounced and repudiated" what it considered to be "a shameless robbery and an act of international piracy";[1] according to Reuters, "legal specialists said it did not fall under such a definition under international law".[28] Maduro's government stated that it would "defend its sovereignty, natural resources, and national dignity with absolute determination".[42] It accused Trinidad and Tobago of participating in the ship's seizure, without saying how they had participated, and canceled all natural gas agreements between the two countries.[43]

Other

The government of Guyana stated that Skipper was falsely flying the flag of Guyana as it was not registered in the country.[44] Cuba's foreign ministry called the oil tanker's seizure an "act of piracy and maritime terrorism," aimed at obstructing Venezuela's right to free trade.[45]

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, condemned the US seizure of the oil tanker as "an act of piracy" that he said had no legal basis under international law and that all countries should condemn.[46]

Chevron spokesperson Bill Turenne reported that its operations in Venezuela continued without disruption.[12] Oil futures rose after the seizure, with Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures both rising by 0.4%.[22]

On September 16, a panel of experts on behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the action as a form of extrajudicial execution and a violation of the right to life.[47]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Jacobs, Jennifer; LaPorta, James; Escobedo, Richard; Watson, Eleanor; Kurtz, Nick; Sganga, Nicole & Walsh, Joe (10 December 2025). "What We Know About The Skipper, the Oil Tanker Seized by the U.S. Near Venezuela". CBS News. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Copp, Tara; DeYoung, Karen; Schmidt, Samantha. "Coast Guard boards oil tanker leaving Venezuela amid Trump's blockade". Washington Post. Retrieved 21 December 2025.
  3. ^ a b Ali, Idrees; Stewart, Phil; McCaskill, Nolan D. (21 December 2025) [20 December 2025]. "Exclusive: US intercepts oil tanker off Venezuelan coast, officials say". Reuters. Retrieved 21 December 2025.
  4. ^ Levin, Sam (7 August 2025). "Trump Administration Doubles Reward for Arrest of Venezuela's President to $50M". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  5. ^ a b c Phillips, Tom & Roth, Andrew (10 December 2025). "Venezuela Decries 'Act of Piracy' After US Forces Seize Oil Tanker Off Country's Coast". The Guardian. Rio de Janeiro and Washington, D.C. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d Rego, Max (10 December 2025). "Lawmakers React to US Seizure of Venezuelan Oil Tanker". The Hill. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
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  19. ^ Triebert, Christiaan & Mellen, Riley (10 December 2025). "Oil Tanker U.S. Seized Has Faked Its Location Before, Data Shows". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
  20. ^ Furlong, Ray (11 December 2025). "Tanker Seized By US Off Venezuela Was Part Of Iranian Shadow Fleet". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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