The United States is preparing to intercept additional ships carrying Venezuelan oil after seizing a tanker this week, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The move marks the first time Washington has directly interdicted a Venezuelan oil cargo since sanctions were imposed in 2019, and it comes amid a significant U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean as President Donald Trump escalates efforts to oust Nicolás Maduro.
The unprecedented seizure has jolted global shipping operators, prompting some to reconsider planned voyages from Venezuelan waters. Multiple shipping and trading sources told Reuters that further direct interventions are expected in the coming weeks, targeting tankers carrying Venezuelan crude as well as vessels that have previously transported sanctioned oil from Iran or Russia. One source said Washington has already compiled a list of tankers flagged for potential seizure.
Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment, while Caracas has denounced the seizure as an act of “theft.” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, asked whether more ship seizures were coming, declined to confirm but said the administration would continue enforcing sanctions. “We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil,” she told reporters.
According to two sources cited by Reuters, the U.S. Justice Department and Homeland Security had been planning the tanker operations for months. A further squeeze on Venezuelan oil exports — the government’s main source of revenue — would apply heavy financial pressure on Maduro, who has accused Washington of preparing for regime change and seeking to seize control of the OPEC nation’s oil wealth.
The U.S. Treasury on Thursday imposed new sanctions on six supertankers that recently loaded Venezuelan crude, along with four Venezuelans, including three relatives of First Lady Cilia Flores. It remains unclear whether these vessels are among those now under consideration for interception.
Wednesday’s tanker seizure, involving a vessel named Skipper, followed more than 20 U.S. strikes in recent months against what Washington described as drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Experts interviewed by Reuters have raised concerns that the strikes may constitute illegal extrajudicial killings, an allegation the U.S. rejects.
A still image released by U.S. authorities shows American forces abseiling onto the Skipper during the operation off Venezuela’s coast. The raid is expected to culminate with the tanker sailing to a U.S. port, where its oil cargo will be formally seized through a legal process, Leavitt said.
The operation has already caused commercial disruption. One shipper temporarily halted voyages of three newly loaded cargoes totaling nearly 6 million barrels of Merey crude, Reuters reported. Some tankers are now idling off the Venezuelan coast to avoid entering international waters where U.S. forces are positioned to intercept vessels.
U.S. surveillance efforts have intensified in waters around Venezuela and neighboring Guyana, according to sources. Washington has also been monitoring the movements of other shadow-fleet tankers, including the Seahorse, a vessel under UK and EU sanctions for its ties to Russian oil trading. The Seahorse was briefly detained by a U.S. warship in November before continuing on to Venezuela.
The Biden administration’s new strategy zeroes in on the opaque global network of aging tankers used to transport sanctioned oil to China, the largest buyer of Venezuelan and Iranian crude. Many of these vessels lack proper insurance and operate under murky ownership structures, which could complicate plans to offload captured cargoes at U.S. ports.
While the Venezuelan government has accused Washington of committing “international piracy,” legal specialists told Reuters the claim does not hold under international law. Laurence Atkin-Teillet, a piracy and maritime law expert at Nottingham Law School, said that because the seizure was sanctioned by a sovereign state, “it cannot be considered piracy,” describing the accusation as rhetorical rather than legal.
Further interdictions now appear likely as Washington increases economic and military pressure on Maduro, setting the stage for a tense standoff across the Caribbean’s oil routes in the weeks ahead.
