U.S. forces seized an oil tanker near the Venezuelan coastline Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, a significant escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro and his country’s oil-dependent economy.
U.S. seizes ‘very large’ oil tanker off Venezuelan coast, Trump says
The seizure was a significant escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his country’s oil-dependent economy.
The Washington Post 12/10/25
“And, other things are happening,” Trump added. “So you’ll be seeing that later, and you’ll be talking about that later with some other people”
Trump did not provide further details about the seizure, the tanker, its owner or where it was headed. “I assume we’re going to keep the oil,” he said.
The Navy and Coast Guard referred questions to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Follow
One person familiar with the seizure said the tanker appeared to be carrying Venezuelan oil to Cuba. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The claim could not be immediately corroborated.
The legal authority for the seizure was not clear. Washington has imposed sanctions on Venezuela and its state-owned oil company. The Trump administration has also targeted some tankers it says are transporting oil from countries under sanction.
“Depending on what legal justification they used to seize the vessel, it could create a lot of problems for the regime,” a person familiar with the seizure said. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said the seizure could have a “big financial impact.”
The seizure adds a new tactic to the Trump administration’s months-long military campaign in waters near Venezuela. Since September, U.S. forces have launched strikes against more than 20 boats it alleges were carrying drugs to the United States. The strikes have killed at least 87 people.
The Pentagon has dispatched 11 warships, scores of aircraft and thousands of personnel to the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean in what it has described as an anti-drug-trafficking mission.
The buildup appears to also be a pressure campaign to unseat Maduro, who Trump has alleged directs traffickers and criminals to assault the United States. Trump told Politico this week that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and declined to rule out sending U.S. troops into Venezuela.
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but mismanagement, decrepit equipment and U.S.-led sanctions have sharply limited output. The country is exporting a daily average of about 900,000 barrels, Reuters has reported, up from last year but far below the 2.4 million barrels it exported daily in 2008. Its largest customers are China and the United States, which in July reissued a license to the U.S. energy giant Chevron to resume operations in Venezuela.
In 2020, during the first Trump administration, the United States seized 1.1 million barrels of Iranian fuel from four vessels that were headed to Venezuela. The Justice Department said the action disrupted a multimillion dollar shipment by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, designated by the State Department a foreign terrorist organization, in the largest-ever seizure of fuel from Iran.
Venezuelan oil provides a lifeline for Cuba, which, like Venezuela, is subject to heavy U.S. sanctions. The communist island nation has suffered extensive blackouts this year due to limited fuel and aging infrastructure.
The seizure of the oil tanker was announced hours after opposition leader María Corina Machado missed the Oslo ceremony to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. Machado has been in hiding in Venezuela since January and barred by the government from leaving the country. Her daughter, accepting the honor in her place, said she would appear in Oslo soon.
Machado has dedicated the prize in part to Trump “for his decisive support of our cause.”