The US continues its crackdown on piracy and seizes another oil tanker near Venezuela.
US naval operation tightens siege on Venezuelan oil and raises geopolitical tensions in the Atlantic.
247 - United States forces intensified naval actions against Venezuelan oil sales on Friday (9) by boarding and seizing another oil tanker in the Caribbean. The initiative is part of an offensive launched in December by US President Donald Trump and represents the fifth such operation in the period, expanding the reach of the maritime blockade in the region.
According to reports from international agencies, the intercepted vessel was the oil tanker Olina, boarded near the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, in an area close to Venezuelan territory. US authorities suspect the ship was returning from a trip to China after transporting oil from Caracas.
Maritime traffic monitoring data indicates that the Olina sails under the flag of Timor-Leste. For the United States, this is an indication that the vessel is part of the so-called "ghost fleet," composed of ships that use supposedly opaque registrations and identities to circumvent international sanctions. The vessel, 252 meters long, had left the Chinese port of Liuheng on December 19.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the tanker had been used on several occasions to transport oil and petroleum products from Russia and that it was under sanctions. The seizure comes just two days after one of the most complex actions of this campaign, when US forces concluded a two-week pursuit of the tanker Marinera, which was sailing under a Russian flag.
In this previous episode, the approach took place near the coast of Iceland. In addition to seizing the ship, the United States reinforced monitoring in the North Atlantic by deploying patrol and remote sensing aircraft to the United Kingdom, with the aim of identifying other vessels involved in transporting sanctioned oil.
Russia reacted to the actions, classifying them as piracy, but did not formally claim the Marinera. At least three Russian sailors who were on board have already been released. In parallel, Moscow carried out the second use of the Orechnik missile in the context of the Ukraine War, in a military signal directed at Washington.
Maritime monitoring experts indicate that at least 15 vessels have turned off their transponders—equipment that allows satellite tracking—in an attempt to evade the blockade imposed by the Trump administration. Russian analysts estimate that at least three of these ships are sailing under the Russian flag.
