SKIPPER

As part of Operation Southern Spear, the United States enacted a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela on 17 December 2025, after placing additional sanctions affecting oil trade with the country. A week before announcing the blockade, the US seized the oil tanker Skipper in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela on 10 December, and then focused its military efforts on intercepting and pursuing other tankers trading with Venezuela. On 7 January 2026, the United States boarded and seized the Russian oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) in the Atlantic near Iceland and the Panama-flagged M Sophia in the Caribbean Sea. Skipper had been sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury in 2022 for alleged involvement in an oil trafficking shadow fleet of vessels involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. Marinera and Sophia had also been sanctioned by the Treasury Department. The Venezuelan government condemned the seizure of Skipper, describing it as an "act of international piracy". UN Security Council members urged restraint and some UN representatives condemned the naval blockade, and analysts said US actions tested maritime law.