U.S. intends to seize oil from tanker captured near Venezuela, White House says

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to detain the oil tanker it seized in waters near Venezuela at a U.S. port in Texas, but release the crew once the ship docks, according to two U.S. officials.

Officials said the tanker was seized in international waters. U.S. personnel aboard the tanker interviewed the crew and offered the United States to facilitate their travel from the ship after it arrived at a port in Galveston, Texas, the officials said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday the United States would seize the oil aboard the tanker after following a “legal process” to do so.

The United States seized the ship, a large oil tanker known as Skipper, on Wednesday in a joint Coast Guard and Navy operation led by President Donald Trump, as part of its efforts to increase pressure on the Venezuelan regime. It comes amid escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela, with the Trump administration bombing suspected drug-trafficking ships and strengthening its military assets in the region. Trump also threatened that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s days in power are numbered.

The administration said the tanker was used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. Leavitt called it a “sanctioned ghost ship known to transport black market sanctioned oil” to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

The administration has provided few details about the tanker, the fate of its crew or the legal justification used to seize the vessel.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia led the investigation that led to the seizure, according to an office spokesperson. The spokesperson said the search warrant and accompanying affidavit authorizing the seizure remain under seal in U.S. District Court in Washington. As of Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office had not received a timeline for unsealing all of the arrest warrants, the spokesperson said.

A federal judge signed the warrant several weeks ago, another federal law enforcement official said.

Unsealing the warrant and accompanying affidavit would provide details of the legal justification for seizing the vessel.

The United States can cite a variety of reasons to justify any vessel seizure, including violations of sanctions or illegal smuggling of drugs or weapons supporting designated terrorist organizations.

“The Trump administration is implementing the president’s sanctions policy,” Leavitt said. “And we will not stand idly by and watch sanctioned ships sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel the narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes across the world.”

The Skipper is the same vessel that the Treasury Department previously identified as the Adisa, an oil tanker linked to a sanctions-evading smuggling ring that U.S. officials say was transporting Iranian oil to generate revenue for Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Adisa was owned by front companies linked to network facilitator Viktor Artemov and was used to transport oil on behalf of the smuggling network, according to a 2022 Treasury sanctions memo.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto called the seizure a “blatant theft.”

“The real reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have been exposed. It’s not migration. It’s not drug trafficking. It’s not democracy. It’s not human rights,” Pinto said in a statement on social media. “It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”

Trump’s aggressive approach to Venezuela, from military strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats to threats of regime change, has drawn some support but also bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers’ reaction to the seizure has been mixed and largely influenced along partisan lines.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said Americans should expect similarly aggressive actions from the Trump administration.

“I think everyone should get used to it,” Schmitt said. “This administration is very focused on abandoning forever wars on the sands of the Middle East and truly protecting the American people in our own hemisphere. So this is not a one-and-done deal.”

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Trump is “sleepwalking into a war with Venezuela.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday the operation was led by the Coast Guard with support from the Departments of Defense and Justice, as well as the FBI.

“This is a successful operation led by the president to ensure that we push back against a regime that is systematically blanketing and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans,” Noem said during a congressional hearing Thursday.

NBC News reported that the bulk of drugs coming from Venezuela, more than 90 percent, were destined for Europe and not the United States.

The dramatic seizure of the ship fuels speculation that Trump could green light a full-scale war against Venezuela if Maduro refuses to give up power on his own. Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch military strikes against Venezuela, saying it may be necessary to eliminate drug targets inside the country.

Trump’s Pentagon has mounted one of the region’s most massive military buildups, estimated to be larger than during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The United States now has about 15,000 troops and a dozen ships, including America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, deployed in the region, according to a defense official.

It also has more than 10 F-35 fighter jets in Puerto Rico and a special forces team operating in the region.

The Pentagon said that since early September, the military has struck more than 20 ships that the administration says were trafficking drugs, killing more than 80 people. The administration has presented no evidence to support its claims.

At the end of the month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also signed an agreement with the Dominican Republic to guarantee U.S. access to the country’s main airport and the San Isidro military base. The agreement allows the United States, for a limited time, to refuel aircraft and transportation equipment in restricted areas of the air base and at Las Américas International Airport, officials said at the time.

U.S. firepower now off Venezuela and new access to Dominican runways give Trump a range of options to strike the regime and cartels from the air or on the ground.

Leavitt declined to speculate on Trump’s ultimate goals in the region or whether his pressure on Venezuela is all about drugs or also oil.

“The president has taken a new approach that hasn’t been taken by any administration in some time, to really focus on what’s happening in our backyard,” she said, adding that his policy toward Venezuela aims to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States and “demolish foreign terrorist organizations and drug cartels” in the region and around the world.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Thursday evening, Trump was asked if the campaign against Venezuela was still focused on drugs or if oil was now part of the equation.

Trump said it was “a lot of things,” arguing that one element had to do with criminals entering the United States.

“So it has to do with a lot of things,” Trump said. “They treated us badly, and I guess now we don’t treat them as well.”

Trump, who campaigned on extracting the United States from foreign conflicts, has not explained to Americans why military action in Venezuela might be necessary, what risks it might pose to American troops or how it might benefit the United States.

During his first administration, he seized tankers similar to the Skipper. In 2020, he ordered U.S. personnel to seize four Venezuela-bound tankers carrying Iranian gasoline based on a federal court order, for example. In this case, no military force was used and the ships obeyed the order.

Asked whether regime change in Venezuela was on the table and why Trump had taken more action against Venezuela during his second term, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement: “President Trump was clear in his message to Maduro: Stop sending drugs and criminals to our country. President Trump is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding our country.”