Washington — The U.S. has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, officials said Wednesday, escalating tensions between the two countries. President Trump said he assumes the U.S. will keep the oil. 

Bloomberg first reported the oil tanker seizure. Mr. Trump announced the seizure during a roundtable meeting at the White House, saying the tanker was "seized for a very good reason." 

"As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large," he said. "Largest one ever seized, actually. And other things are happening, so you'll be seeing that later and you'll be talking about that later with some other people." 

When asked by a reporter what will happen to the oil on the ship, Mr. Trump responded, "Well we keep it, I guess," adding, "I assume we're going to keep the oil."

The president didn't provide further details. 

The tanker is called The Skipper, according to three sources familiar with the seizure. The operation to seize it started at about 6 a.m. Wednesday and involved two helicopters, 10 Coast Guard members, 10 Marines and special operation forces, according to a senior military official and a source familiar with the operation. The Skipper had just left port in Venezuela when it was seized, they said.

The helicopters used in the tanker seizure launched from the USS Gerald Ford and the boarding team was comprised of the Coast Guard's Maritime Security and Response Team, an elite maritime-interdiction unit based on the East Coast in Chesapeake, Virginia, according to a senior military official and a source familiar with the operation.

The USS Gerald Ford, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the U.S.'s fleet, arrived in the Caribbean last month amid a larger military buildup in the region.

The Skipper was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2022 for alleged ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah. At the time, it sailed under the name Adisa. The 20-year-old tanker previously sailed under the name The Toyo in 2005, according to public maritime data.

Attorney General Pam Bondi shared video of the seizure on social media, writing that the tanker was "used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran" and had been seized by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Coast Guard, "with support from the Department of War."

"For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations," Bondi wrote.

The operation was led by the United States Coast Guard, supported by Navy forces, according to U.S. officials. Any such operation would legally require the Coast Guard to be the lead agency, because the authorities used for these seizures fall under Coast Guard jurisdiction.

While the U.S. government — particularly the Justice Department and Homeland Security Investigations — has seized sanctioned oil tankers before, conducting a fast-rope boarding from helicopters at sea is rare, though it is something the boarding teams train for.

The Trump administration is considering more missions similar to Wednesday's seizure, according to the senior military official and a source familiar with the operation.

Mr. Trump has been threatening to expand the United States' monthslong campaign of strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans onto land in Venezuela. The U.S. has been steadily building up its military forces in the area, and deployed two fighter jets to fly over the Gulf of Venezuela just this week. 

"We're going to start doing those strikes on land, too," Mr. Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting last week, when asked about the administration's strikes at sea. "You know, the land is much easier ... And we know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And we're going to start that very soon, too."