US forces boarded an oil tanker after a cat-and-mouse chase from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon mentioned, as Washington expands its geographic scope in an ongoing crackdown on a world shadow fleet used to export sanctioned crude.
The Aquila II had departed from the Jose terminal in Venezuela in early December and seemed to be certain for China, in accordance with ship monitoring information compiled by Bloomberg. The ship was intercepted whereas heading towards the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.
It’s the newest Venezuela-linked ship the US has taken management of since December, and the furthest from Caribbean waters, underscoring how far Washington is ready to go to implement its power quarantine worldwide.
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The Suezmax vessel, in a position to haul about 1 million barrels of oil, was sanctioned for its involvement within the Russian oil commerce following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Though it was crusing underneath the flag of Panama when it was sanctioned by the US, as a Treasury Sanctions record search reveals, it now seems to be working underneath an unknown flag, in accordance with the Equasis worldwide transport database and Bloomberg information.
Earlier US tanker seizures had been executed earlier than and after US forces captured and eliminated former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a highly-coordinated operation that included air strikes on Caracas. The final such incident occurred in late January, when Motor Vessel Sagitta was captured within the Caribbean Sea.
The Trump administration has pledged to crack down on Venezuela’s use of sanctioned ships, which regularly deploy misleading satellite tv for pc positioning indicators, false flags and different deceptive strategies to illegally export oil and different items.
On Monday, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned the Pentagon was pursuing darkish fleet vessels carrying Venezuelan crude around the globe.
“The one steerage I gave to my navy commanders is, ‘None of these are getting away. None of them.’ I don’t care if we gotta go across the globe to get ‘em, we’re gonna get ‘em,” Hegseth mentioned in a speech at Basic Dynamics Marine Methods’s Tub Iron Works, which builds US Navy vessels in Maine.
“After we say blockade, we imply blockade,” he added, referring to what the US authorities has mentioned is an oil “quarantine.”
The episode comes as oil merchants and US refiners rush to place for entry to Venezuelan crude anticipated to achieve the Gulf Coast quickly.
The Aquila II appeared on automated monitoring techniques on Sunday for the primary time since March 2025, in accordance with information compiled by Bloomberg. Its draft and pictures posted to X by the US Division of Battle counsel the vessel wasn’t totally loaded on the time it was boarded.
Equasis identifies the ship’s supervisor as Linnet Marguerite Ltd, based mostly at an deal with in Hong Kong. It provides no different contact particulars.
The ship’s place seems per rounding the Cape of Good Hope and heading for the Sunda Strait, a route favored for Asia-bound voyages after Yemen-based Houthis started attacking vessels on the shorter Pink Sea route.
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