US accused of 'piracy' after troops storm tanker off Venezuela

Venezuela has accused the US of "piracy" after an oil tanker was seized off the country's coast.

Donald Trump announced the operation had taken place during a meeting of business leaders at the White House, telling reporters: "We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually." Attorney General Pam Bondi shared a video of the operation, revealing the FBI, Homeland Security, US Coast Guard, and Department of Defence were involved. She said the US forces "executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran".

Venezuela's government said the seizure "constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy." Ms Bondi said the seized vessel - believed to be a tanker named Skipper - has been sanctioned by the US for many years "due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations". She did not name the vessel, what flag it sailed under, or exactly where the incident took place.

UK maritime risk management group Vanguard said that the tanker Skipper - which the US sanctioned for alleged involvement in Iranian oil trading under the name Adisa - was believed to be the target. According to satellite information analysed by TankerTrackers.com and internal data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, the Skipper left Venezuela's main oil port of Jose between 4 and 5 December after loading some 1.8 million barrels of Venezuela's Merey heavy crude oil.

It then, while near Curacao, transferred about 200,000 barrels of oil to the Panama-flagged Neptune 6 bound for Cuba. Sky News analysis has identified the location it was seized as being about 28 miles (44 km) south-southeast of Grenada.

Marine Traffic shows the location of the Adisa/Skipper as being between Grenada and Trinidad at about 11pm UK time last night, but it is known that the ship's location tracking data has been unreliable in recent months. The site shows it currently heading north, northeast of Grenada and southeast of Saint Vincent.

Trump offers ominous commentary Without giving additional information on the operation, Mr Trump added during the White House meeting that "other things are happening". Later, Mr Trump said the tanker was "seized for a very good reason.