U.S. forces intercepted a second oil tanker off Venezuela's coast, following through on President Donald Trump's promise to blockade sanctioned vessels. The operation ramps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the tanker stopped voluntarily for boarding.
U.S. forces conducted a pre-dawn operation on December 21, 2025, intercepting the oil tanker Centuries off Venezuela's coast. This marks the second such action in under two weeks, following the December 10 seizure of the Skipper, and comes days after President Donald Trump announced a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving the South American nation.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the U.S. Coast Guard, with Defense Department assistance, halted the vessel, which had last docked in Venezuela. She shared an unclassified video on social media showing a U.S. helicopter landing personnel aboard the Panama-flagged tanker, recently tracked near Venezuelan waters by MarineTraffic. It remains unclear if the ship faces U.S. sanctions. Noem posted on X: “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you.”
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, described it as a “consented boarding,” with the tanker voluntarily halting for inspection. Trump, after the initial seizure, pledged a full blockade and demanded Venezuela return assets expropriated from American oil firms. “We’re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through,” he told reporters. “You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it — they illegally took it.”
Historically, U.S. companies dominated Venezuela's oil sector until nationalizations in the 1970s and under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro in the 21st century. In 2014, an international arbitration panel ordered Venezuela to pay ExxonMobil $1.6 billion in compensation. The tanker interceptions align with Trump's directives for strikes on Caribbean and eastern Pacific vessels allegedly smuggling fentanyl and drugs. Since early September, 28 such attacks have killed at least 104 people, justified as part of an “armed conflict” with cartels. Maduro faces U.S. narcoterrorism charges.
Lawmakers and human rights activists criticize the strikes for lacking evidence and resembling extrajudicial killings. The U.S. has deployed its largest regional warship fleet in generations, with Trump hinting at imminent land operations. Maduro claims the moves aim to oust him. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
