Escalation in the Caribbean: US troops have seized the tanker “Skipper” off the coast of Venezuela. Caracas has described the action as “piracy”.
US forces have seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela that has been consistently identified as “Skipper” by maritime services. Satellite images show that the VLCC-class vessel (310,000 dwt) had taken on a total of 1.1 million barrels of crude oil in the port of José. The loading was apparently intended to take place in secret: Falsified AIS position data located the ship far away. The ship, formerly known as “Adisa”, was built in 2005 and is reportedly sailing under a false Guyanese flag.
US Attorney General Pamela Bondi published a video on Platform X showing scenes of the operation. A helicopter drops several soldiers on board the tanker, who then occupy the bridge. Bondi writes that the “Skipper” had already been subject to sanctions by the USA for several years. The tanker was involved in an “illegal oil transport network of foreign terrorist organizations”, she said. “The seizure off the coast of Venezuela went safely and smoothly – and our joint investigation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transportation of sanctioned oil continues.”
Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. For multiple… pic.twitter.com/dNr0oAGl5x
– Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 10, 2025
The incident is the preliminary culmination of US activities off Venezuela. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been stationed in the Caribbean, and a few weeks ago the aircraft carrier “Gerald R. Ford” arrived in the waters. Venezuela, which has some of the largest crude oil reserves in the world, exports a significant proportion of it via a shadow fleet. As a result of US activities, exports fell to 700,000 barrels per day in November, according to media reports.
Satellite images of the “Skipper” show that the ship transmitted false AIS data several times over the course of the year. After it was loaded with crude oil off Iran in July, which was later transported on to Hong Kong via an STS transfer. The tanker then returned to Iranian waters and headed west, only to surface again later in the Caribbean. This is a common pattern used by the shadow fleet to disguise the origin of the ships.
Accusation of “piracy”
As expected, the Venezuelan government strongly condemned the US measure. The seizure was a “brazen theft” and an “act of international piracy”, it said. The case is to be presented to international bodies in order to officially condemn the USA. The US has been carrying out regular strikes in the Caribbean for months. While the seizure of the “skippers” is directed against Venezuela’s crude oil exports, most recent attacks have been on ships allegedly used by drug smugglers. In one incident in September, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth is said to have ordered an attack in which crew members of a ship were left helpless in the water. Although they reportedly called for help and waved, a second strike was ordered in which they died. The action was criticized not only internationally, but also in the USA – Hegseth was accused of war crimes on several occasions.
