The M/T Skipper seized by U.S. Coast Guard, was a sanctioned crude-oil tanker previously identified as part of an oil shipping network supporting Lebanese group Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, both U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.

President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Venezuela on Tuesday by announcing that he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers ” entering and leaving the South American country.

President Donald Trump announced late Tuesday he had ordered a “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela”—an escalation of the Trump Administration’s military pressure campaign on the South American country.

The cost of shipping oil is likely to remain high in the first half of 2026 as the global fleet ages and a rising number of vessels are hit with Western sanctions, shipping sources say, though rates could be capped in the second half.

The Trump administration plans to hold the oil tanker it seized in waters near Venezuela at an American port in Texas but release the crew once the vessel docks, according to two U.S. officials. The officials said the tanker was seized in international waters.