US seizes dark fleet tanker Skipper off Venezuela
If you’re wondering why a ship called Skipper is everywhere today, here’s the short version. On 10 December 2025, a US Coast Guard‑led team boarded the very large crude carrier in a helicopter raid near Venezuela and took control of the vessel. President Donald Trump announced the seizure hours later, and agencies shared edited video of the boarding. For us, it’s a teachable moment about how tankers hide in plain sight.
How do we know the ship was the Skipper? BBC Verify matched a name plate seen in US footage to a reference image supplied by TankerTrackers.com, which monitors oil shipments. Independent analysts at Kpler and MarineTraffic had already flagged irregular behaviour on the ship’s public track, making identification and pattern‑spotting easier once the video appeared.
Quick definition: Automatic Identification System (AIS) is the radio beacon large ships must broadcast under international safety rules. It sends identity, position, course and destination so vessels avoid collisions and authorities can see traffic. When a ship “goes dark”, it switches the beacon off. Spoofing is different: the beacon stays on but sends false positions. Kpler’s recent analysis shows vessels caught spoofing are far more likely to be sanctioned within months, which is why investigators treat it as a strong warning sign.
Let’s build the Skipper timeline around Venezuela. The ship’s last declared position on public trackers was 7 November, several miles off Guyana. Satellite images then placed it at Venezuela’s Puerto José on 18 November while it wasn’t showing on tracking sites. Analysts at Kpler say the tanker had loaded at least 1.1 million barrels of Merey crude by 16 November and even listed Cuba as its destination. Its location only reappeared on 10 December after the raid.
Earlier in the year, the same ship left a confusing trail. MarineTraffic lists a July port call at Soroosh in Iran after stops in Iraq and the UAE, but Kpler’s checks suggest parts of that trail were deceptive. While Skipper’s AIS placed it at Iraq’s Basrah Oil Terminal on 7–8 July, terminal logs showed no such call; analysts say it actually loaded at Kharg Island in Iran. Kpler also tracked a ship‑to‑ship transfer between 11 and 13 August and a later discharge in China that was falsely declared.
Flags matter at sea. Guyana’s maritime authority said Skipper was falsely flying its flag and is not on Guyana’s registry. Under international law, ships need a valid nationality; when a vessel is effectively “stateless”, it becomes easier for enforcement agencies to act, though legal scholars note the details here are still being debated. This is one reason the flag on a stern is more than paint.
Who actually runs the ship you saw in that video? Shipping databases list Nigeria‑based Thomarose Global Ventures as manager and the Marshall Islands’ Triton Navigation Corp as registered owner. The US Treasury sanctioned Triton in 2022, saying it was used by Russian businessman Viktor Artemov to help run an oil‑smuggling network tied to Iran’s IRGC‑Quds Force and Hezbollah. That’s why you’ll find earlier references to the same hull under the name Adisa.
Is a ship‑to‑ship (STS) transfer illegal? Not by itself. Operators can move oil between tankers for safety or scheduling. But analysts told BBC Verify that doing this far from ports, alongside spoofed positions or false paperwork, is a red flag because it hides who loaded the cargo and where it truly came from. It’s one of the quickest ways to disguise sanctioned barrels.
Zoom out and you see the bigger pattern often called the “dark fleet” or “shadow fleet”: older tankers with opaque ownership moving sanctioned oil. S&P Global says the fleet now runs into the thousands globally, with many voyages obscured by AIS manipulation or “going dark”. After the Skipper operation, shipping sources told reporters more than 30 sanctioned vessels working Venezuela may now face action as owners reassess risk.
Media literacy tip: free ship‑tracking sites are brilliant for learning, but they’re not the whole record. Watch for long signal gaps, sudden “jumps” across oceans, or port calls that don’t match terminal logs. Compare public AIS tracks with satellite images from reputable sources and ask who gains if a ship appears somewhere it isn’t. Investigators distinguish one‑off glitches from sustained, selective spoofing.
Where do clandestine transfers often happen? For Iranian-and some Venezuelan-flows heading to China, waters off Malaysia have been a regular stop. Reporters and data firms have logged transfers there and noted attempts to relabel cargoes before discharge. It’s a reminder that what looks like a straight line on a map can hide a very winding route.
What to watch next. Caracas has condemned the seizure as piracy, while Washington frames it as a law‑enforcement action tied to a federal seizure warrant. Courts will decide what happens to the hull and the oil. In the meantime, insurers, charterers and crews will be watching whether more tankers go quiet or switch names overnight-and you’ll know what to look for when they do.