USA Boards Venezuela-Linked Oil Tanker

US forces boarded an oil tanker after a cat-and-mouse chase from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon said, as Washington expands its geographic scope in an ongoing crackdown on a global shadow fleet used to export sanctioned crude.

The Aquila II had departed from the Jose terminal in Venezuela in early December and appeared to be bound for China, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The ship was intercepted while heading toward the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.

It’s the latest Venezuela-linked ship the US has taken control of since December, and the furthest from Caribbean waters, underscoring how far Washington is prepared to go to enforce its energy quarantine worldwide.

The Suezmax vessel, able to haul about 1 million barrels of oil, was sanctioned for its involvement in the Russian oil trade following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Although it was sailing under the flag of Panama when it was sanctioned by the US, as a Treasury Sanctions list search shows, it now appears to be operating under an unknown flag, according to the Equasis international shipping database and Bloomberg data.

Previous US tanker seizures were executed before and after US forces captured and removed former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a highly-coordinated operation that included air strikes on Caracas. The last such incident took place in late January, when Motor Vessel Sagitta was captured in the Caribbean Sea.

The Trump administration has pledged to crack down on Venezuela’s use of sanctioned ships, which often deploy deceptive satellite positioning signals, false flags and other misleading techniques to illegally export oil and other goods. 

On Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon was pursuing dark fleet vessels carrying Venezuelan crude around the world. 

“The only guidance I gave to my military commanders is, ‘None of those are getting away. None of them.’ I don’t care if we gotta go around the globe to get ‘em, we’re gonna get ‘em,” Hegseth said in a speech at General Dynamics Marine Systems’s Bath Iron Works, which builds US Navy vessels in Maine. 

“When we say blockade, we mean blockade,” he added, referring to what the US government has said is an oil “quarantine.”

The episode comes as oil traders and US refiners rush to position for access to Venezuelan crude expected to reach the Gulf Coast soon.

The Aquila II appeared on automatic tracking systems on Sunday for the first time since March 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its draft and images posted to X by the US Department of War suggest the vessel wasn’t fully loaded at the time it was boarded.

Equasis identifies the ship’s manager as Linnet Marguerite Ltd, based at an address in Hong Kong. It gives no other contact details.

The ship’s position looks consistent with rounding the Cape of Good Hope and heading for the Sunda Strait, a route favored for Asia-bound voyages after Yemen-based Houthis began attacking vessels on the shorter Red Sea route.

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