What does international law tell us about the US seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela?

"We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela — a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually," said Donald Trump on December 10.

- BY MARK CHADWICK Lecturer in Law, Nottingham Trent University

US seizes oil tanker off Venezuela coast The United States has seized a large oil tanker, identified as The Skipper and believed to be carrying 1.1 million barrels of heavy crude, in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuelan officials condemned the seizure, calling it "blatant theft" and an act of "piracy".

(Source: Al Jazeera, Sanad, marinetraffic.com December 11, 2025 @AJLabs ALJAZEERA)

In a dramatic operation, US forces had just taken over an oil tanker called Skipper, which was sanctioned by the US in 2022 while sailing under a different name. "I assume we're going to keep the oil," the US president added later.Venezuela has been under US-imposed sanctions since 2019, when Trump was first in the White House. And recent months have seen US forces target several vessels in the Caribbean, predominantly off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, each alleged to be trafficking drugs from the region. These strikes have killed more than 80 people so far.

The seizure of the Skipper marks the latest episode in the increasingly hostile relationship between Trump and Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. But what does international law have to say about the seizure?

Offering an official legal justification, US attorney-general Pam Bondi stated that US forces acted in execution of “a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”. She added that the tanker had been sanctioned for many years “due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations”.

The exact position of the seizure is not clear. Some accounts say it was seized “on the coast of Venezuela”, while others suggest the operation took place “in international waters”.