Yves here. So far, information about the US piracy in capturing an oil tanker off Venezuela is limited, but this action does make the buildup of naval assets in the area make a bit more sense. CBS provided information on the operation and the legal pretexts:
The operation to seize the tanker began Wednesday morning, after the boat had just left port in Venezuela, according to a senior military official and a source familiar with the operation.
The mission was launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier that has been in the area for weeks as part of a broader buildup of U.S. forces in the region, the sources told CBS News.
It involved two helicopters, special operations forces, 10 members of the U.S. Coast Guard and 10 Marines, the sources said. The boarding team was composed of the Coast Guard’s Maritime Security and Response Team, an elite maritime interdiction unit based in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a 45-second video of the operation on X, showing armed personnel descending onto the vessel’s deck from a helicopter. She said the U.S. executed a seizure warrant on the vessel, and that the tanker was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
While the U.S. government — particularly the Justice Department and Homeland Security Investigations — has seized sanctioned oil tankers before, conducting a fast-rope boarding from helicopters at sea is rare, though it’s something the boarding team trains for, U.S. officials said.
The operation was led by the Coast Guard, supported by Navy forces, the officials told CBS News. Any such operation would legally require the Coast Guard to be the lead agency because the authorities used for these seizures fall under Coast Guard jurisdiction.
The Skipper was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2022 for its alleged role in an oil smuggling network that helped fund the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran.
The ship — known as Adisa in 2022 — is among the vessels controlled by sanctioned Russian oil magnate Viktor Artemov, the Treasury said in a statement. At the time, the Treasury said Artemov transported Iranian oil using an expansive network of ships that were often registered in obscure ways with the intention of skirting U.S. restrictions on Iranian petroleum exports.
The Treasury’s 2022 sanctions announcement didn’t mention Venezuela. But oil networks involving both Iran and Venezuela have been reported for years, drawing pushback from the United States. The two countries are major petroleum producers with some of the world’s largest oil reserves, but trade is restricted by heavy U.S. sanctions.
The tanker is controlled by Nigeria-based management company Thomarose Global Ventures LTD and owned by a firm linked to Artemov, according to publicly available data.
Cuba was also a target of this operation:
Trump proudly announces an act of piracy, with the US theft of an oil tanker from Venezuela bound for Cuba
This act of financial terrorism was aimed at starving Cuba of energy, worsening its blackout crisis and tormenting its populationpic.twitter.com/5vo65vD59b
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 10, 2025
Reuters points out Over 30 sanctioned ships in Venezuela at risk after US tanker seizure:
More than 30 U.S.-sanctioned oil vessels doing business in Venezuela could face punishment by Washington after the Coast Guard seized a supertanker carrying Venezuelan crude for export, according to shipping data….
The targeting of Venezuela-origin cargoes is expected to create short-term export delays and could scare some vessel owners away, experts and analysts say. Washington had not previously interrupted Venezuela’s oil exports, which are carried by intermediaries in third-party vessels….
Previous sanctions on Venezuela-related vessels or oil flows have left a swirl of loaded tankers waiting for weeks and even months to depart to avoid conflicts. On Wednesday, more than 80 vessels loaded or waiting to load oil were in Venezuelan waters or near its coast, including more than 30 under U.S. sanctions, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com.
The global shadow fleet includes 1,423 tankers, of which 921 are subject to U.S., British or European sanctions, according to analysis from maritime data specialist Lloyd’s List Intelligence. They are typically old, their ownership opaque and they sail without top-tier insurance cover to meet international standards for oil majors and many ports.
Alexander Mercouris has repeatedly taken issue with the “shadow fleet” designation. He has said that all it signifies is that the vessels are not insured in the London market, and that there is no evidence that the insurance they do obtain is subpar. The term also incorrectly deems them to be a “fleet” as in subject to higher level operation or coordination, which is not the case.
Anadolu Agency reports that Trump is also threatening Colombian president Gustavo Petro:
President Donald Trump threatened his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro on Wednesday, telling him that “he’s going to be next” as the US leader seeks the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“He’s been fairly hostile to the United States. I haven’t given a lot of thought. He’s gonna have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up. Colombia is producing a lot of drugs,” Trump said in response to a question on whether he plans to speak with Petro.
“They have cocaine factories that they make cocaine, as you know, and they sell it right into the United States. So he better wise up, or he’ll be next. He’ll be next soon. I hope he’s listening. He’s going to be next,” he added…
Wednesday’s comments mark the most explicit call from Trump for Petro to face US action unless he takes unspecified steps on Trump’s allegations.
So much for the self-styled president of peace.
By Josh Owens, Content Director at Oilprice.com who has written and curated energy and geopolitical content for oilprice.com for the last 10 years. Originally published at OilPrice
- U.S. forces, including the Coast Guard, Homeland Security, and FBI, seized the Panama-flagged tanker “Skipper” off Venezuela under a federal warrant tied to sanctions violations.
- Venezuela denounced the action as “international piracy,” accusing Washington of trying to “plunder” its energy resources.
- The move, part of a wider U.S. campaign against illicit oil trade, drove oil prices higher on fears of further disruptions to Venezuelan crude flows.
The United States has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking a major escalation in tensions between Washington and Caracas and pushing oil prices higher. 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 “other things are happening so you’ll be seeing that later.”
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 foreign terrorist groups.
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.
In Caracas, the government of President Nicolás Maduro condemned the seizure, branding it “a blatant theft” and an act of “international piracy.” The Venezuelan statement argued that the move was part of a “deliberate plan to plunder our energy resources,” and vowed to defend the country’s sovereignty, natural resources, and national dignity, while calling on international bodies to denounce the U.S. action.
The move comes on the back of the U.S. releasing its latest national security strategy, which, among other things, emphasizes a strong U.S. influence in Latin America. President Trump’s focus on Venezuela has included blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, raising questions over the legality of those strikes.
Markets reacted promptly, with oil prices rising on the prospect of a major disruption to Venezuelan crude flows, particularly heavy sour grades that feed refiners. At the time of writing, Brent futures were trading 0.44% higher at $62.21 while West Texas Intermediate futures were up 0.58% at $62.21.
Markets will be watching closely to see if Trump’s claim that “other things are happening” proves to be yet another escalation.
“The move, part of a wider U.S. campaign against illicit oil trade”
BS reporting. “The illicit move, part of a wider US Campaign against Venezuela”. The anti-Chavista media par excellence in Spain El Pais this morning chooses to ignore Trump’s seizure in favour of the Nobel Prize winner who apparently calls in Oslo for a “peaceful” regime change. So, “peaceful” must mean via military seizures and the strangling of Venezuelan and Cuban economies. Please don’t tell me this isn’t coordinated. It is indeed.
Yesterday, BBC news ran a report from their correspondent in Venezuela, who claimed, apropos the Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado (or her daughter) in Oslo, that the entire population of Venezuela wanted to hear her speech. Western media dont even pretend to be objective anymore.
Unlikely the entire population was interested since her speech was in English!
It’s noteworthy that when nutters like Machado, Baerbock and Kallas make outrageous statements, they make them in English. They are not speaking to a domestic audience.
Perhaps, for these people, the adjective “peaceful” means “via compulsion through threat of violence, without actual bloodshed.”
What exactly happens to the oil and the ship after these seizures? Who gets it, and how much do they pay?
The US has done this at least once before and if I recall, the oil from that seized ship was sold and the profits pocketed by the US and eventually the ship made its way back to the market. Arrrghhhh!
With apologies to Grace Slick, We’re the Privateers of America, the Privateers of America
‘Buckaneers’
Color Revolution, Color Revolution!
Bolivar’d of Broken Dreams
You continue to produce excellence and occasionally, as here, just destroy me. Thanks again!
Thanks for the kudos d’gras~
Choice.
Trump gives it to Israel,
Trump was asked this very question and said “I guess we will keep it.”
It’s not just him of course. Don’t forget that the gold that Venezuela had in London was seized by the British during Trump 1. Then there’s today’s companion story about the Russian money in Belgium.
Piracy everywhere you look.
With this, the boat strikes and the jets in teh gulf of Venezuela, I think one must ask if the US is trying to get Venezuela to strike back in order to manufacture support (in the US) for an invasion?
Yes, but it has become clear they’re trying to avoid doing it through overt military means because that carries political risk.
Airstrikes might be insufficient to knock off the government.
Ground troops will get some from our side killed, create a failed state or civil war, and that’s a bad look.
He’s trying to do regime change through intimidation, alone. For a 2 decade old government that’s been under sanctions the whole time. I don’t think it’s enough.
It’s a pattern. Decades of sanctions on some place, then some nudging to see what moves. More sanctions and nudging. Some ebb and flow, but rinse and repeat…
From the start, the build up off the coast of Venezuela had blockade written all over it.
It is not a coincidence that the tanker was bound for Cuba. Punishing the Cuban people is a psychotic obsession in Washington.
And kicked up a notch by the ascension of Marco Rubio.
Folks who live in a glass house should not throw stones, and Trump’s tariff war shows he is happy to toss stones hard with expected results.
In isolation, this is just another effort of the US to impose extraterritoriality on its laws. But (per Brian Berletic), enemy nation tankers have been hit off Africa and in the Black sea.
It would be very easy for a global tanker war to start, and as the US exports, I think around half its oil for refining, it is at great risk of learning that it has losing cards as it did for rare earths.
Not that I would expect DC to understand or to understand why it would take 5-10 years (of losses by US majors who donate heavily to Congress) to reconfigure and retune US refineries (industry trend is shutting down US refineries), which are mostly not configured for US crude, particularly for diesel, the engine of US food and transportation and industry. US dependency is 30% (equivalent to 8 million of annual 20 million barrels consumed) with the strategic reserve at multidecadal lows.
Meanwhile, Electric Viking is reporting a massive (50% yoy) increase in China in electric, short-haul heavy-duty semi-truck sales, with costs of $80k (versus $300k for diesel), decreasing global diesel demand (he says collapsing, but provides no numbers). In China, market disruption is happening far faster than anyone expected – much faster than for cars (note the Chinese market is twice as big as Europe for these trucks, so Volvo et al., have some tough competition and heavy R&D to try to compete with China – and the EV sales in Europe are not encouraging for European manufacturers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm33rrAiXB0
It’s always struck me as stupid that we cannot refine our own oil. But that’s our elite.
This is a profoundly foolish act – quite probably the most foolish act performed by any US government since the turn of the century.
Piracy justified by with unilateral “sanctions” against a country or countries without any international legitimacy is an act of war and a war crime which can be tolerated if the “sanctioned” country has significant economic, diplomatic and/or economic power (think Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran) and can take it on the chin, choosing to eat revenge cold and plan how, when, where and what precise forms the punishment beating(s) will take.
Whatever the state of Venezuela’s relations with the rest of the Global South may be, I imagine that the chancellories of every major (and not so major) country are busy discussing the all-consuming stupidity of this act, and certainly Russia must now consider pre-emptive war against Europe given that Europe’s plans for war against Russia have been disclosed, and the world’s major economic and military powers must consider what economic and military responses they must take to weaken, isolate and reduce American power simply because it is too large and powerful and lacks the maturity and intelligence to use that power wisely.
We are deep in a world Barbara Tuchman would recognise immediately – and probably be able to predict the sequence and number of steps which will be taken to neutralise the pre-pubescent child given to violent tantrums which turn into playground fights it always loses.
Perhaps full-spectrum dominance failed because the US never understood that it requires that every soldier be issued a pair of sandals and given 12 months full sandals training, and that there should a few guys at the top with a map and an IQ north of 95 in order to achieve anything remotely like it.
Whatever the outcome, and every version I am coming up with is not remotely to be wished, a whole lot of have nots and people who do not know they are have nots but are are going to be left much worse off. While this will primarily fall upon the Venezuelans, Americans are not exempt.
Sadly, it is highly likely that a small group of hideous human beings will not only come out unscathed, but in great shape. One consolation in this is that I really believe the odds that the most well known of the Trump crew of fools and psychopaths are not likely to be a part of that group. The only other one is that my friends are unlikely to ignore or justify it like they would for
Clinton…Obama…Biden…Harris.It’s maddening when illegal unilateral coercive measures, aka “sanctions”, are presupposed as legal in the ‘western’ techno-controlled AND coordinated media platforms. Then used as fodder in their “justifications” pretzel factory.
Unjustified” Sanctions” are illegal acts of aggression. Except in the “exceptional” “might is right’ psychopathic mentality, where the “fully backed” DOD(W) sec. was quoted as saying(paraphrased) “cultivate an ethos of maximum lethality as opposed to tepid legality” …
Who knew? that when our MAG[A] lords of “peace” (subjugated acquiescence) injected the word “again”, they were inferring resuscitating a potpourri of some of histories infamous epochs, e.g., “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “rule by decree”, “Inquisitions” (see the recent DOJ sec. memo) etc.…
Trump out to prove Michael Hudson correct – the free market really does mean the freedom to loot!
From the start, the build up had blockade written all over it.
“The Buck Stops Here”
The plaque on Truman’s desk
“I haven’t given a lot of thought”
The plaque on Trump’s desk
I love that all the press now call Viktor Artemov a “sanctioned Russian oil magnate” when he was only sanctioned six weeks ago and all the sources at the time, including the U.S. Treasury Department, listed him as a “Ukrainian” national based in Switzerland, holding a “Ukrainian” passport valid through 2028. Viktor Artemov is shown to be “Ukrainian” born and holding “Ukrainian” nationality going all the way back to the Panama Papers.
Now all of a sudden he’s a “Russian” for propaganda purposes.
Well spotted.
They are shameless.
With this move the world comes closer to understanding capitalism for what it is: an economic system of theft.
And emboldened by the lack of consequences, there being no effective international law, we’ll see more and more overt acts of the same. The US Navy is now repurposed for piracy. It has been lacking a purpose since the fall of the Soviet Union.
But….why the US Coast Guard? Isn’t this quite outside of their organizational mandate? Will we now see the US Coast Guard deployed in the Middle East? China Sea? Antarctica? Was there really nobody in the US Navy who could have done this? What was the conversation which led to this?
The US Coast Guard is already deployed over the whole planet and for example they have their own base in Bahrain and I have heard of them in the south Pacific. And yes, they have even visited Antarctica.
If US National Guard can guard Iraq, then US Coast Guard can guard all the coasts. Send them to Caspian Sea, and Oceanus Procellarum.
Well, so much for that new NSS. The stupid wars will continue except now we’re going to cause major chaos in our back yard. This is NOT learning from W’s worst foreign policy ever, this is double, no tripling down on the stupid.
And for what? Venezuela is currently exporting oil to America, and willing to do more business with America so what is this even about? America paying blood and treasure so some rich ex-Venezuelans can get a hard on? Count me the [family blog] out.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Thanks, I was wondering the military justified seizure of the tanker. And it’s by declaring it a Coast Guard enforcement of sanctions. I am unsure how they will justify an invasion. Will the Senate pass a war powers resolution? The Democrats pushed several national security candidates in the November elections, so I’m not envisioning resistance there. Senators know where their bread is buttered.
Trump has evidently see the writing on the wall for the upcoming defeat in Ukraine and wants to fob off that loss to our European vassals. The war against Yemen didn’t work out so well, war with Iran poses too many risks, bombing Somalia is just a regular Pentagon cash cow, so it is necessary to begin another war in order to keep the Pentagon’s money laundromat working at full speed. Keeping war tensions at peak volume also helps distract a growing restlessness among the MAGA faithful.
How many supertankers is the Gerald R. Ford worth? An Houti kinzal exported to northern South America could probably sink the ‘target’.
re: Venezuela
Scott Ritter and Andrei Martyanov with Danny Haiphong.
Along Ukraine also Venezuela.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIDr9alGsiA&t=1s
Ritter is 100% sure of Maduro taken out or captured.
However there is an interesting thing at TC 56:00 – Martyanov – (who is not a specialist on SA – in my view most of these commentators who I follow are not, maybe that´s due to the general disregard/lacking expertise of SA in the Anglo-Saxon sphere?) – points at Russian special forces on the ground in Venezuela who are “damn good”. But he doesn´t say much more and doesn´t go as far as contradicting Ritter´s certainty in public.
Almost as if he didn´t want to reveal some possible operations countering CIA, the rumours of which he might have picked up?
I am sorry if this is about as speculative as talk about UFOs.
But my feeling tells me that since these guys are military and not of the ilk of a Vijay Prashad they may underestimate domestic resilience of the Chavismo socialist tradition in the region. Those are political idealists unlike Martyanov or even Ritter. Comparison to Iran, Syria, Irak etc. therefore make little sense.
I wonder if that “100% operation” of the CIA would fail at whatever stage – would we ever learn about it???