On December 16th, 2025, President Trump issued a new order directing US armed forces to intercept previously sanctioned oil tankers leaving Venezuelan waters. This marks another escalation in the ongoing Venezuela-US dispute as part of a regime change effort being made by President Trump.
Notably, the policy is a departure from the military’s previous efforts in the region. In fact, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon was surprised by the order and has been scrambling over the past few days in order to enforce President Trump’s order. The first interception of a sanctioned oil tanker was carried out by members of the Coast Guard and seized a tanker named the Skipper, reportedly with tens of millions of dollars in crude oil abroad. Trump has previously stated that the US will keep and utilize the oil.
The Skipper, which has since been moved to the shore off of Galveston, Texas, is believed to have been part of a “ghost fleet” of ships operated by Russia which use false flags to evade Western sanctions on Russia itself as well as nations such as Venezuela and Iran. The sanctions placed on Russia were set during the opening stages of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict as punishment for invading a sovereign nation. The other seized tankers are also believed to be a part of this scheme. These thousand or so tankers play a key role in supplying nations such as Venezuela and Iran and also in generating money for Russia through the sale of oil which is used to finance their invasion of Ukraine.
The Venezuelan government has responded by sending convoys of non-sanctioned vessels with Venezuelan naval escorts; however, these escort missions have not included sanctioned ships as of Dec. 26th.
The number of seizures has reached 4 after a ship known as the Marinera, which was initially known as Bella 1 and flew the flag of Guyana. The Bella 1 had previously painted a Russian flag on its hull in an attempt to escape the US naval blockade of Venezuela. Therefore, the capture of the Marinera is a major escalation of tensions between Russia and the US, as the seizure was the first of it’s kind against a vessel registered to Russia. It is also important to note that the efforts against these sanctioned vessels include US allies such as the United Kingdom, Estonia, Finland, and France. The primary reason for the Marinera’s capture was due to two separate incidents when the ship’s mandatory identification transponder was deactivated for nearly 100 days, a common tactic of ships smuggling Iranian crude oil.
After the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro on the morning of January 3rd, Trump has stated the US will now control the sale of all Venezuelan oil for a “fair price.” This makes the blockade of Venezuelan tankers of much greater significance because this plan relies entirely on effectively stopping the sale of oil to countries through seizures. The blockade will also act as a means for the US to control all actions of the new Venezuelan President, Delcy Rodriguez, due to the ghost fleet’s huge impact on the Venezuelan economy.
