What do we know about the oil tanker seized by the US off the Venezuela coast?

The Skipper, a tanker sanctioned by the US in 2022, is thought to have been carrying 1.1m barrels of Venezuelan oil

Jonathan Terushalmy and Edward Helmore / The Guardian  

 

The U.S. has seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, a move that sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.

 

"We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening," said Trump, who has been pressuring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

 

Asked what would happen with the oil, Trump said: "We keep it, I guess."

In response, the Venezuelan government in a statement accused the U.S. of "blatant theft" and described the seizure as "an act of international piracy". It said it would denounce the incident before international bodies.

 

Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. The seizure is the first of a Venezuelan oil cargo amid U.S. sanctions that have been in force since 2019. It is also the Trump administration's first known action against a Venezuela-related tanker since he ordered a massive military buildup in the region. Read more here.