U.S. Seizes Tanker Off the Coast of Venezuela, Spiking Oil Prices

The U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, a major escalation that coincided with a rise in oil prices.

President Donald Trump confirmed the seizure during a roundtable with business leaders at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, with officials later claiming that the vessel was being used to transport oil in violation of U.S. sanctions from both Iran and Venezuela.

“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually,” Trump told reporters before the event began Wednesday afternoon.

When asked what the U.S. planned to do with the oil, Trump replied: “Well, we keep it, I guess.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a 45-second video of the seizure on X Wednesday evening, saying, “For 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.”

“This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely—and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues,” Bondi posted.

The tanker, named The Skipper, was previously sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2022 for alleged ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. At the time, the Treasury Department found the tanker transported Iranian oil through an elaborate network of ships in order to bypass U.S. oil sanctions.

Reuters first reported the operation, which was carried out by the United States Coast Guard with assistance from the FBI, Homeland Security and the U.S. military.

That seizure shocked oil markets, with global prices ticking up as Brent crude hit roughly $62.35 per barrel.

By directly targeting a tanker, the U.S. is capturing a key piece of Venezuela’s economic lifeline. Given that crude exports are Caracas’s primary revenue source, the move threatens to further squeeze the Venezuelan economy.

The tanker operation also comes amid a shift, during Trump’s first year in office, to a far more aggressive posture in the region. Over the past three months, U.S. forces have carried out more than 20 lethal strikes on vessels that Washington said were tied to drug trafficking, many of them in waters off Venezuela. Those attacks have killed dozens so far.

The centerpiece of the surge is USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which includes the largest aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet. The strike group officially entered the Caribbean Sea in mid-November, as part of Operation Southern Spear. By that point, nearly a dozen Navy ships, plus roughly 12,000 U.S. sailors and Marines, were operating in the wider Caribbean–Venezuela theater.

Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, will likely see this as an overt act of aggression. The seizure could spook allies and traders, deter future tanker traffic to Venezuelan ports and is sure to amplify fears that Trump is planning to take direct action in the country.