US seizes second oil tanker near Venezuela

 The U.S. boarded a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Saturday that had been docked in Venezuela, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ramping up its pressure on the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

It was the second such action by the U.S. in recent weeks and it came after President Trump announced last Tuesday that he was ordering a “total and complete blockade” against oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela that are under U.S. sanctions.

“The US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela,” Noem said in a social-media post, describing it as “a predawn action.” Other U.S. officials said the Navy assisted in the operation.

A video released along with Noem’s statement showed a person descending by rope from a helicopter onto the deck of a tanker named the Centuries. The ship is a Panama-flagged vessel, according to Marine Traffic, a vessel tracker.

The operation comes 10 days after the U.S. took control of a U.S.-sanctioned tanker named the Skipper. The Centuries’ registered owner, Hong Kong-based Centuries Shipping, didn’t immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

The Centuries isn’t included on sanctions lists from the U.S., U.K., European Union or the United Nations, according to shipping data firm Kpler.

The ship loaded crude at Venezuela’s Jose terminal and has been sailing the Caribbean near the Venezuelan coast since Dec. 4., according to Marine Traffic, a Kpler unit. The company said the ship was fully loaded by Dec. 11 with around two million barrels of crude. In the days following the loading, satellite imagery showed that it was sailing off Grenada on a route toward Asia, according to Marine Traffic.

The ship was first tracked moving Venezuelan oil to China in April 2020 and was involved in ship-to-ship transfers off Malaysia.

It was unclear whether the U.S. planned to take possession of the ship along with its cargo, as officials have said they planned to do with the Skipper.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem said. “We will find you and we will stop you.”

A senior U.S. official said the administration’s strategy is to seize more tankers, with the exception of those chartered by Chevron, which has a U.S. license to operate in Venezuela. He said the Navy and the Coast Guard have identified other suspicious ships.

The moves against tankers strike at the heart of Maduro’s grip on power by threatening oil revenue vital to the regime. About 70% of the country’s oil exports rely on a fleet of sanctioned vessels now being targeted by the U.S. government.

Saturday’s boarding of a ship not under U.S. sanctions “suggests a very broad interpretation of President Trump’s enforcement strategy, which means a significant revenue squeeze for Maduro,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Venezuela’s government condemned what it called the theft of the ship and accused the U.S. military of kidnapping the vessel’s crew, deeming it a “serious act of piracy” and a violation of international maritime laws.

“Venezuela reaffirms that these acts will not go unpunished,” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who doubles as the country’s oil minister, said in a statement. She added that Venezuela will file a complaint at the United Nations Security Council. “The colonialist model that the government of the United States is trying to impose with these kinds of practices will fail and will be defeated by the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.

Trump last Tuesday ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers serving Venezuela. But some U.S. officials say the operation should be described as a quarantine that is targeting shipping traffic deemed illegal but not halting other trade.

Giving the Coast Guard the lead role in the tanker boardings suggested that the White House was seeking to portray the operation as a law-enforcement action, not a military blockade of Venezuela. A blockade is considered an act of war under international law unless it is in response to an armed attack.

The U.S. has moved new military aircraft and units into the region in recent days, which join a flotilla of 11 Navy warships and other assets in the Caribbean. Together, they give Trump powerful tools to cut off oil flows and conduct strikes on land if he chooses to do so.

The U.S. is preparing warrants to take other ships, according to senior Justice Department officials. While the U.S. has gone after sanctioned oil before, the Trump administration has shifted its strategy to seize the ships trafficking the oil as well, they said. The pivot aims to take the so-called “ghost fleet” of oil tankers serving sanctioned countries out of operation, they said.