EXCLUSIVE: US seizes vessel off Venezuelan coast, officials say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Updated Dec. 20, 2025, 12:40 p.m. ET


The United States is interdicting and seizing a vessel off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, three U.S. officials told Reuters on Saturday, Dec. 20, a move that comes just days after President Donald Trump announced a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

This would mark the second time in recent weeks that the United States has seized a tanker near Venezuela and comes amid a large U.S. military build-up in the region.

The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not say where the operation was taking place but added the Coast Guard was in the lead.

The Coast Guard and Pentagon referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Venezuela's oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/20/exclusive-us-seizes-ship-venezuela/87861284007/

[sinkingfeeling]

1. The pirates of the Caribbean strike again.

[Ligyron]

2. Oh, so now it's about oil?

I thought it was all about drugs being smuggled thousands of miles to the US in tiny boats.

[FakeNoose]

10. Of course, it has always been about oil ... and deflection from Epstein

... but you knew that.

[slightlv]

3. Its all about money... for trump.

All Venezuela really needs to do is offer him a "good deal" and he'll give the boats back. /snark

This is getting pretty damned serious AFAIC... we're going to be in a war soon, and he'll cancel the elections. He can't see any other way around getting trounced at the Midterms.

[FredGarvin]

4. 10% of Venezuela tankers are unsactioned

The rest are allowed to go in and out of the ports...

Chinese, Indian and Russian ships are allowed passage.

Much ado about nothing as usual

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. Amazing how he militarily only picks on nations having little or no means of defending themselves.

Similar to how he mostly attacks minority citizens and visitors in the USA and removes charitable aid from impoverished and essentially defenseless small nations.

Trump always behaves like a rich, entitled neighborhood bully.......

It's past time for the removal of this brattish criminal from office.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Raygun and Poppy did that

History repeating.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. Thanks, that's a nice YouTube military history reference channel.

Years ago, I did service work at a paper mill near Kenosha, WI but that was well before the Pritzker Military Museum & Library was established. It would be an interesting place to visit.

Raygun and Poppy set a lot of precedents that have been followed by a lot of very bad presidential behavior....

I suspect that between those two and W, the total number of unjustifiable dead, wounded and displaced due to U.S. military action would be staggering, and certainly in the millions.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. It seemed that some of the impetus behind these ridiculous engagements

was to purportedly "absolve" the U.S. from the aftermath of Vietnam and have "a win".

[Polybius]

11. I overheard someone saying something similar to a bully when I was a teen

He was being verbally abused and made fun of, so he asked the bully why he only picked on those smaller and weaker than him. The bully's response was "Well, I'd be pretty foolish to pick on someone bigger and stronger than me." Your title made me think of that memory for the first time in years.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

13. What you said made me think of bullies throughout life.

Schools, corporations and even civic organizations have bullies, in my experience. They are just selfish, self-centered people who are insecure in their own skin and need to feel superior to something.

As a retired old man, I often feel bullied by companies going after every penny of my retirement, and young people, planes and trains making relentless noise in my neighborhood in the summer and now having to put up with four years of it from Washington, thanks to millions of stupid American voters - - who must have bullying personalities. Whew!

I am grateful that most of life's bullies are temporary.

Thanks, I needed to rant.......

[MarineCombatEngineer]

6. Oh, so the USCG is taking the lead?

Well then, it must be ok.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. The oil tanker is actually owned by China.

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

9. ..

But that’s not the scary part.

1) The oil tanker is actually owned by China.

(from here - https://www.statista.com/chart/34182/imports-of-venezuelan-oil-by-country/)

[cstanleytech]

12. International State sponsored piracy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Oil was destined for China, "Centuries" is Panama-flagged, and not on a list of vessels that the US has sanctioned

The British maritime risk management company Vanguard told Reuters that the vessel was believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries and was intercepted east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.

The vessel does not appear to be on the list of US-sanctioned vessels, according to multiple reports, which would represent an escalation in American enforcement of its blockade.
...
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco-terrorism in the region,” Noem said. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
...
The crude was bought by Satau Tijana Oil Trading, one of many intermediaries involved in PDVSA’s sales to Chinese independent refiners, the documents showed.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/20/us-second-merchant-vessel-venezuela

So, unlike the first ship, which had been listed as trading with Iran, and was apparently sailing under the flag of Guyana without permission, and for which the normal transponder seemed dodgy, this looks like a straightforward ship doing international trading. The "used to fund narco-terrorism" is bullshit; it's a normal part of the Venezuelan economy. "East of Barbados" means it was well away from Venezuela too - I'd call it the Atlantic, rather than the Caribbean. "Satau Tijana Oil Trading" is a Dubai company.