US forces have stopped another 330-meter oil tanker under sanctions in the Indian Ocean. As confirmed by the Pentagon, the VLCC “Bertha” was boarded on Tuesday near the Maldives.
The ship is believed to be part of a group of tankers that had left Venezuela with crude oil and were presumably heading for Asia.
According to the US authorities, the “Bertha” had left with around 1.9 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy fuel oil at the beginning of January. The boarding took place in international waters as part of a “right-of-visit” procedure and reportedly took place without incident. The Pentagon stated that the ship had been tracked for several weeks: “From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we monitored and stopped the ship. International waters are not a sanctuary for sanctioned actors.”
The “Bertha” has been on US sanctions lists since 2024. The Treasury Department accuses the tanker of having been involved in the transportation of Iranian oil since at least 2022. In addition, the ship is said to have operated under various identities, including the name “Monica S”. A shipping company based in Shanghai was named as the manager.
Market observers also list the ship as part of a network of tankers operating under changing flags, identities and insurance structures.
The boarding was the third tanker in this group to be intercepted. US authorities had previously stopped the “Aquila II” and the “Veronica III“. In total, around ten tankers have been inspected or detained since December in connection with the stricter enforcement of sanctions against Venezuela and Iran. Individual units were later released again, while others – such as the tanker “Marinera” – were taken to ports and are the subject of criminal investigations.
The “Bertha” itself has a checkered registration history. Built in 2004, the ship was entered in the Cook Islands register in 2024, but the authorities canceled the registration in November of the same year. However, the ship is still listed with this flag in current databases, while at the same time it is said to have made false flag declarations. Lloyd’s Register withdrew the tanker’s classification at the end of 2024, and port state controls are only available until spring 2024.
