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Summary
- Move is first known tanker seizure since US build-up began
- Signals new effort to go after Venezuela’s main revenue source
- Impact on global oil supply unclear
(Reuters) – The U.S. 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’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” said Trump, who has been pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down.
Asked what would happen with the oil, Trump said: “We keep it, I guess.”
In response, the Venezuelan government in a statement accused the U.S. of “blatant theft” and described the seizure as “an act of international piracy”. It said it would denounce the incident before international bodies.
Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. The seizure is the first of a Venezuelan oil cargo amid U.S. sanctions that have been in force since 2019. It is also the Trump administration’s first known action against a Venezuela-related tanker since he ordered a massive military buildup in the region.
The U.S. has already carried out several strikes against suspected drug vessels, which has raised concerns among lawmakers and legal experts.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that the FBI, Homeland Security and Coast Guard, along with support from the U.S. military, carried out a seizure warrant for a crude tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
A 45-second video posted by Bondi showed two helicopters approaching a vessel and armed individuals in camouflage rappelling onto it.
Iran’s embassy in Caracas condemned the action as a “grave violation of international laws and norms” in a post on X on Thursday.
Trump administration officials did not name the vessel or disclose its location at the time of the seizure.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the very large crude carrier (VLCC) Skipper was believed to have been seized off Venezuela early on Wednesday. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the tanker for what it says was involvement in Iranian oil trading when the vessel was called the Adisa.
The Skipper left Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose between December 4 and 5 after loading some 1.8 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude. It transferred about 200,000 barrels near Curacao to the Panama-flagged Neptune 6 bound for Cuba before the seizure, according to satellite information analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
Guyana’s maritime authority said Skipper was falsely flying the country’s flag. The vessel had transported Venezuelan oil to Asia between 2021 and 2022, the PDVSA data showed.
Oil futures rose following 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, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 21 cents, also 0.4%, to close at $58.46 per barrel.
Maduro on Wednesday spoke at a march, without addressing reports of the 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 output. Even as Washington increased pressure on Maduro, Trump’s administration had not previously moved to interfere with oil flows.
Venezuela has had to deeply discount its crude to its main buyer China, due to growing competition with sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran.
“This is just yet another geopolitical/sanctions headwind hammering spot supply availability,” Rory Johnston, an analyst with Commodity Context, said.
“Seizing this tanker further inflames those prompt supply concerns but 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 partners with PDVSA, said its operations in the country were normal and continuing without disruption.
The U.S. oil major, responsible for all Venezuelan crude exports to the United States, last month increased those shipments to 150,000 bpd from 128,000 bpd in October.
INCREASING PRESSURE ON MADURO
Maduro has alleged that the U.S. military build-up is aimed at overthrowing him and gaining control of the OPEC nation’s oil resources, which are the world’s largest crude reserves.
Since early September, the Trump administration has carried out more than 20 strikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing more than 80 people.
Experts say the strikes may be illegal. There has been little or no proof 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 those on board.
Concerns about the attacks on the boats increased this month after reports that the commander overseeing one of the operations ordered a second strike that killed two survivors.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday found that a broad swath of Americans oppose the U.S. military’s campaign of deadly strikes on the boats, including about one-fifth of Trump’s Republicans.
In a sweeping strategy document published last week, Trump said his administration’s foreign policy focus would be on reasserting its dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Liz Hampton, Jonathan Saul, Marianna Paraga, Matt Spetalnick and Nathan Crooks; Editing by Chris Reese, Chizu Nomiyama, David Gregorio and Tom Hogue
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