U.S. forces abseil onto an oil tanker throughout a raid described by U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi as its seizure by the USA off the coast of Venezuela, Dec. 10, 2025, in a nonetheless picture from video.
U.S. Lawyer Common | Through Reuters
After the U.S. navy seized a big crude oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, President Donald Trump recommended the ship’s contents might stay in U.S. possession.
“Properly, we hold it, I assume,” Trump informed reporters Wednesday throughout a enterprise roundtable on the White Home, hours after the Guyana-flagged Skipper was seized.
However comparable seizures prior to now have led to the sale of confiscated property. The query now’s the place the oil from the Venezuelan ship might find yourself and the way the proceeds might be distributed.
Matt Smith, head U.S. analyst at vitality consulting agency Kpler, informed CNBC that Skipper was covertly loaded with 1.1 million barrels of oil in mid-November and gave the impression to be headed for Cuba. Although the tanker flew Guyana flags, the nation’s Maritime Administration Division stated in an announcement on Wednesday that the ship was not registered in Guyana.
“In previous cases, primarily involving Iran, the oil is bought and the US authorities stored the proceeds. There is a civil asset forfeiture course of,” stated Bob McNally, founder and president of Rapidan Vitality Group and a former White Home vitality advisor to President George W. Bush.
“We anticipate that to be adopted on this case,” McNally stated.
Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, a petroleum evaluation agency, informed CNBC that the U.S. has seized Iranian oil bought into the U.S. Gulf Coast on a number of events in recent times.
“There’s a course of, finally the USA has to indemnify anybody collaborating within the transaction, which incorporates the oil purchaser, any tankers required for the lightering operation or any of the service suppliers concerned within the transaction,” Lipow stated. Lightering is the method of transferring cargo, oil or hazardous supplies from one ship to a different.
“They’ve carried out it prior to now, will accomplish that once more,” Lipow stated.
Spokespeople for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Pentagon deferred to the White Home when requested concerning the technique of disposing of the tanker and oil. The White Home, Division of Justice, and Homeland Safety Division didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
In 2024, the U.S. seized and bought Iranian oil, producing $47 million in proceeds, a few of which could possibly be directed towards the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, based on an announcement by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Columbia earlier this 12 months.
The U.S. Marshals Service additionally operates an asset forfeiture program that features managing and promoting property seized by the DOJ. However the Marshals Service shouldn’t be concerned within the Venezuelan seizure, based on an company spokesperson.
Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, in a submit on X on Wednesday, stated that the ship had been sanctioned for a number of years due to its “involvement in a bootleg oil delivery community supporting overseas terrorist organizations.”
“Our investigation alongside the Division of Homeland Safety to stop the transport of sanctioned oil continues,” Bondi wrote.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem defended the seizure throughout testimony at a Home listening to on Thursday.
“It was a profitable operation directed by the president to make sure that we’re pushing again on a regime that’s systematically masking and flooding our nation with lethal medication and killing our subsequent technology of People,” Noem informed the Home Homeland Safety Committee.
She touted the Coast Guard’s efforts to focus on drug smugglers and “these people which are funding it with a shadow fleet of sanctioned oil that ought to by no means be bought to profit their income and their pockets to kill People.”