Trump administration plans to seize oil after tanker visits US port

The White House announced Thursday that a large crude oil tanker seized by the U.S. military off the coast of Venezuela is “heading to a U.S. port.”

“And the United States is going to seize the oil,” White House press secretary Caroline Levitt told reporters at a briefing a day after the vessel, identified as “Captain,” was boarded and taken into control by U.S. authorities.

“But there is a legal process for seizing that oil, and that legal process will be followed,” Levitt said.

“The United States currently has a full-scale investigation team on board the ship, those on board have been questioned, and all relevant evidence has been seized,” he said.

President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that the ship’s contents may remain in the possession of the United States.

“Well, we’ll keep it,” President Trump told reporters Wednesday during a business roundtable at the White House, hours after the captain was taken into custody.

Similar foreclosures have occurred in the past, leading to the sale of confiscated assets.

Matt Smith, principal U.S. analyst at energy consulting firm Kpler, told CNBC that the Skipper secretly loaded 1.1 million barrels of oil in mid-November and appears to be headed for Cuba. Although the tanker was flying the Guyanese flag, the country’s Maritime Authority said in a statement on Wednesday that the vessel was not registered in Guyana.

Bob McNally, founder and president of Rapidan Energy Group and former White House energy adviser to President George W. Bush, said: “In past cases, primarily Iran was involved, the oil was sold and the proceeds were kept by the U.S. government. There are civil asset forfeiture proceedings.”

“We hope that will be followed in this case,” McNally said.

Andy Lipow, president of oil analysis firm Lipow Oil Associates, told CNBC that the United States has made multiple seizures of Iranian crude sold to the Gulf Coast in recent years.

“There is a process, and ultimately the United States must compensate everyone involved in the transaction, including the oil buyers, the tankers needed for the lightening operations, and the service providers involved in the transaction,” Lipow said. Lightening is the process of transferring cargo, oil, or hazardous materials from one ship to another.

“They’ve done it in the past and they’ll do it again,” Lipow said.

Past seizures provided a windfall for the United States.

The U.S. could seize and sell Iranian oil in 2024, generating $47 million in proceeds, some of which could be donated to the U.S. State-Sponsored Terrorism Victims Fund, according to a statement earlier this year from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Marshals Service also operates an asset forfeiture program that involves managing and selling assets seized by the Department of Justice. However, the agency is not involved in the seizures in Venezuela, according to a spokesperson for the agency.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X on Wednesday that the ship had been sanctioned for multiple years for its “involvement in an illicit oil transportation network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”

“We continue to investigate in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to interdict the shipment of sanctioned oil,” Bondi wrote.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the seizure in testimony at a House hearing Thursday.

“The operation directed by the president to ensure we push back against a regime that is systematically blanketing our country, flooding our country with deadly drugs, and killing the next generation of Americans has been a success,” Noem told the House Homeland Security Committee.

She touted the Coast Guard’s efforts to target drug smugglers and “individuals funding shadow fleets of sanctioned oil that should never be sold to line their own profits and pockets to kill Americans.”