This ship is a known blockade runner. "The ship has frequently carried oil from countries under U.S. sanctions, and its tracking data shows multiple recent trips to Iran and Venezuela"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/us/politics/oil-tanker-ve...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/us/politics/oil-tanker-ve...
Are we blockading Venezuela? That would generally be considered an act of war.
The vessel is registered in Guyana so I guess they can complain if they think the seizure was illegitimate.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:41...
> "The government of Guyana — which borders Venezuela — said in a statement Wednesday the ship was falsely flying the Guyanese flag, despite not being registered in the South American country"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-we-know-oil-tanker-the-ski...
(Context reminder: Guyana is the country Venezuela's Maduro threatened to invade in 2023).
(Also context: the sanctions on this ship's Russian owner date from 2022, and are about violating US sanctions on Iranian oil).
It feels a little sketchy to force countries to deregister ships in order to seize them, but they could have flown Venezuela's flag instead of taking the risk of being stateless instead.
“Sanctions” imposed by one country on another limiting its trade with third countries are (if force is used to effect them) a (limited) blockade and absolutely an act of war.
> "The ship — known as Adisa in 2022 — is among the vessels controlled by sanctioned Russian oil magnate Viktor Artemov, the Treasury said in a statement[...] The tanker is controlled by Nigeria-based management company Thomarose Global Ventures LTD and owned by a firm linked to Artemov, according to publicly available data."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-we-know-oil-tanker-the-ski...