Oil tanker Marinera, formerly known as Bella 1 photographed at sea in the Singapore Strait on March 18, 2025. HAKON RIMMEREID / AFP
The United States on Wednesday, January 7 seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic after pursuing it from off the coast of Venezuela, in an operation set to ratchet up tensions with Moscow. US officials say the tanker is part of a so-called shadow fleet that carries oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions.
The ship had thwarted an earlier attempt to board it last month near Venezuela, where a US raid on Saturday toppled the country's authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro. "The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a US federal court," US European Command, which oversees American forces in the region, said in a statement on X.
After the operation, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted that the US blockade on Venezuelan oil was in full effect "anywhere in the world." Shortly after confirming the successful North Atlantic seizure, the US military announced a second sanctioned tanker ship had been seized in the Caribbean Sea.
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