The United States seized an oil tanker called Skipper near Venezuela on Wednesday. The ship tried to hide its true position by sending fake signals. Its transponder showed it near Guyana and Suriname, but satellite images showed it was hundreds of miles off Venezuela’s coast from late October until December 4. Data from TankerTrackers revealed that Skipper has regularly moved oil from countries under US sanctions, including Iran and Venezuela. Since 2021, Skipper transported nearly 13 million barrels of oil from these countries. Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, said the ship even carried Iranian oil to Syria in 2024, helping Bashar al-Assad’s government during the civil war. Between February and July this year, the tanker moved almost two million barrels of Iranian crude oil to China. On November 18, a satellite photo showed Skipper docked at Venezuela’s José oil terminal, proving it had lied about its location. A photo on the ground confirmed the tanker was loading 1.8 to 1.9 million barrels of oil. Former President Trump confirmed the seizure, saying the US will "keep" the oil and that it was taken for "a very good reason." Venezuela’s government strongly condemned the seizure. They called it a "barefaced robbery and an act of international piracy" aimed to steal the nation’s oil wealth.