Washington. President Donald Trump announced yesterday that the United States had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, escalating its confrontation with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“We just seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a big ship, very big, the biggest ever seized, in fact,” the White House chief declared at the start of a roundtable discussion with business leaders and officials.

“It was seized for a very good reason,” he stated, without elaborating on his argument.

He stated that"other things are happening," but did not offer any details.

When the press asked him what would happen to the oil on board the ship, he stated: “I assume we will keep it.”

Following the announcement of the seizure, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, the benchmark in the Americas, stood at $58.46 per barrel at the close of writing, an increase of 21 cents.

The use of US forces to seize a merchant ship is unusual and marks the latest effort by the Trump administration to increase pressure on Maduro, who, without evidence, has been accused of narco-terrorism in the United States.

Washington has amassed its largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly attacks on vessels under the pretext, without evidence, that they are transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific. The campaign, in which at least 87 people have been killed since last September, faces increasing scrutiny from the US Congress.

Under US law

The seizure of the vessel was carried out in an operation led by the U.S. Coast Guard with support from the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official added that the seizure was conducted under the authority of U.S. federal law.

Coast Guard personnel were transported from the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford to the ship by helicopter, the official said. The vessel is sailing in the Caribbean after arriving in the region last month in a major show of force, joining a fleet of other warships.

A person familiar with the matter, who preferred to remain anonymous when discussing the seizure, said the ship was headed to Cuba. The oil, the person added, was allegedly sold by the state-owned company Cubametales to Asian energy brokers, Politico reported.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a video online showing people quickly descending from one of the helicopters involved in the operation, while it remained just a few feet from the deck.

In later shots, members of the U.S. Coast Guard move around the ship's superstructure with their weapons drawn.

Bondi wrote that “for several years, the oil tanker has been subject to US sanctions due to its involvement in an illicit crude oil shipping network that supports foreign terrorist organizations.”

The US official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper.

The ship departed Venezuela around December 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of which belonged to a Cuban state oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa), which were provided on condition of anonymity because the person was not allowed to share them, AP reported.

US authorities did not specify how many crew members were on board the ship, their nationality, or whether they were detained.

British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the oil tanker Skipper is believed to have been seized off the coast of Venezuela in the early hours of the morning.

Guyana's maritime authority explained that the Skipper was falsely flying the Guyanese flag and said it plans to take action against the unauthorized use of the country's ensign.

According to US officials cited by Bloomberg, the action is part of an intensified campaign to stem the flow of resources to structures and organizations accused of terrorism, where sanctioned Venezuelan crude is typically moved through a network of intermediaries, shell companies, and"ghost tankers." These vessels change names or alter their tracking systems to evade detection and transfer the crude oil on the high seas.