{"id":342351,"date":"2025-12-11T04:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342351\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T04:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T04:25:08","slug":"trump-says-us-has-seized-an-oil-tanker-off-the-coast-of-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342351\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount<\/a> with the government of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

Using U.S. forces to take control of a merchant ship is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration\u2019s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism<\/a> in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats<\/a> in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,\u201d Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that \u201cit was seized for a very good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump did not offer additional details. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, \u201cWell, we keep it, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that it was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.<\/p>\n

Storming the oil tanker <\/p>\n

The Coast Guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the official said. The Ford is in the Caribbean Sea after arriving last month in a major show of force, joining a fleet of other warships.<\/p>\n

Video posted to social media<\/a> by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just feet from the deck.<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard members can be seen later in the video moving throughout the superstructure of the ship with their weapons drawn.<\/p>\n

Bondi wrote that \u201cfor multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s government said in a statement that the seizure \u201cconstitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. \u2026 It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Half of ship\u2019s oil is tied to Cuban importer<\/p>\n

The U.S. official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Nicolas<\/p>\n

Nicolas Maduro speaks at a rally marking the anniversary of the Battle of Santa Ines, which took place during Venezuela\u2019s 19th-century Federal War, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n

Nicolas Maduro speaks at a rally marking the anniversary of the Battle of Santa Ines, which took place during Venezuela\u2019s 19th-century Federal War, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos)<\/p>\n

Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n

Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n

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The ship departed Venezuela around Dec. 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned company Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA, that were provided on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have permission to share them.<\/p>\n

The Skipper was previously known as the M\/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data. The Adisa was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a sophisticated network of shadow tankers that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah militant group. <\/p>\n

The network was reportedly run by a Switzerland-based Ukrainian oil trader, the U.S. Treasury Department said at the time.<\/p>\n

Hitting Venezuela\u2019s sanctioned oil business<\/p>\n

Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. <\/p>\n

PDVSA is the backbone of the country\u2019s economy. Its reliance on intermediaries increased in 2020, when the first Trump administration expanded its maximum-pressure campaign on Venezuela with sanctions that threaten to lock out of the U.S. economy any individual or company that does business with Maduro\u2019s government. Longtime allies Russia and Iran, both also sanctioned, have helped Venezuela skirt restrictions. <\/p>\n

The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.<\/p>\n

Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela\u2019s capital. But he told supporters that the country is \u201cprepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.<\/p>\n

Democrat says the move is about \u2018regime change\u2019<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. seizing the oil tanker cast doubt on the administration\u2019s stated reasons for the military buildup and boat strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows that their whole cover story \u2014 that this is about interdicting drugs \u2014 is a big lie,\u201d the senator said. \u201cThis is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change \u2014 by force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vincent P. O\u2019Hara, a naval historian and author of \u201cThe Greatest Naval War Ever Fought,\u201d called the seizure \u201cvery unusual\u201d and \u201cprovocative.\u201d Noting that the action will probably deter other ships from the Venezuela coastline, he said, \u201cIf you have no maritime traffic or access to that, then you have no economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets<\/a> over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country\u2019s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon<\/a> but has not offered more details.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers<\/a> over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes<\/a> since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors<\/a> clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit. <\/p>\n

Some legal experts and Democrats say<\/a> that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video<\/a> from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders at a classified briefing Tuesday that he was still weighing whether to release it.<\/p>\n

The Coast Guard referred a request for comment about the tanker seizure to the White House.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Goodman reported from Miami, and Garcia Cano from Caracas, Venezuela. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1927,14271,31673,12,3321,793,3502,3140,3,18231,3131,1572,111,18598,24265,20446,33720,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,18232,18597,171640,800,965],"class_list":["post-342351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-central-america","tag-chris-van-hollen","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-gerald-ford","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-pam-bondi","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-south-america","tag-terrorism","tag-transportation-and-shipping","tag-u-s-coast-guard","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-venezuela-government","tag-vincent-p-ohara","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}