AMBREY THREAT CIRCULAR >US SEIZURE OF VENEZUELA AND IRAN LINKED VLCC OFFSHORE VENEZUELA
Date released: 11 December 2025
“Ambrey urges shipping companies to conduct robust affiliation checks, through our comprehensive voyage risk assessment and to consider possible alternate/lower risk voyage plans.”
Source: This document has been approved for distribution by Ambrey Analytics Ltd.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- The US has seized a sanctioned Venezuela-Iran linked VLCC offshore Venezuela.
- The US publicised that military personnel boarded the tanker from a helicopter.
- Ambrey assesses it highly likely that the US will continue to target vessels with a similar nexus, and that, given US sanctions on Venezuela, this could extend.
- It is likely that Iran will retaliate for the seizure, US-affiliated shipping in the Arabian/Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman is assessed to be at heightened risk, particularly laden crude oil tankers.
- There is a lower likelihood that Venezuela will retaliate given the risks involved, and options to de-escalate, but it is advisable to evaluate available risk treatment options if the company/ship bears a US-affiliation.
SITUATION
On 10 December 2025 the US announced that it seized a tanker offshore Venezuela. Ambrey understands that the tanker was an unflagged, already-sanctioned, VLCC. The US Attorney General announced that the “Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the US Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War executed a seizure warrant” for the…