Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 12:52pm on 11 Dec 2025,Thursday International
The U.S. seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, President Donald Trump confirmed, marking the first such action since heightened military deployments in the region. The vessel, believed to be the VLCC Skipper carrying about 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude, was intercepted under U.S. sanctions for illicit oil trading involving Venezuela and Iran. Trump said the oil would be kept by the U.S. Caracas condemned the move as “blatant theft” and “international piracy”, threatening to appeal to global bodies. The action intensified tensions with Venezuela and briefly lifted global crude prices.
