A sanctioned Russian oil tanker reversed course after a U.S. warship in Caribbean waters intercepted its route near the Venezuelan coast, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
According to Bloomberg, the Russian tanker, identified as Seahorse, was on route to Venezuela on November 13 with a fuel cargo delivery when the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale allegedly positioned itself in the tanker’s path.
The Seahorse reportedly changed course and towards Cuba and the Stockdale sailed towards Puerto Rico. Bloomberg detailed that the Seahorse has tried to approach Venezuela twice since so far, but turned back both times and remains “idling in the Caribbean.”
“The tanker had discharged a cargo in late October, traveled to Cuba, and was heading back toward Venezuela when the US ship showed up in its path,” Bloomberg reported. “Its movements since then have been unusual, as Russian fuel vessels typically don’t make U-turns or idle on the well-trod trading route between Cuba and Venezuela.”
“The warship’s intentions with regard to the Russian vessel is unclear, and a spokesperson for U.S. Southern Command declined to comment on the ship’s movements,” Bloomberg reported.
The USS Stockdale is one of the U.S. military vessels presently in Caribbean international waters as part of President Trump’s ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking cartels operating in the area and curb the flow of drugs entering the United States.
Last week, the USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest aircraft carrier, joined the operations.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s expanding military campaign targeting drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations. (Photo by Elif Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Bloomberg said that U.S., Russian, and Venezuelan spokespersons did not immediately respond to its requests for comment.
Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that the U.S. military’s ongoing actions in the Caribbean against drug traffickers is instead part of a purported plot to oust him from power and “steal” Venezuela’s oil and other resources. Maduro himself is actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges.
According to the report, the Seahorse, a Russian vessel under U.K. and European Union sanctions, is one of four vessels that delivers naphtha to Venezuela. Naphtha is a petroleum product that Venezuela largely needs to dilute its extra-heavy crude oil to make it exportable.
Bloomberg reported in October that Russia is now Venezuela’s main supplier of naphtha after the United States dropped its shipments of the petroleum product to the South American country to “zero” between March and October 2025. The outlet noted that Venezuela was able to receive U.S. naphtha from Chevron during the Biden Administration but that President Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy on Maduro halted the shipments.
July reports from Reuters indicated that Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA is now unloading 700,000 barrels of Russian-made heavy naphtha.
Read the full article here