Operation Neptune Spear

The US blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers that escalated into a naval pursuit across the Atlantic.

Operation Southern Spear was a United States military operation that began on 17 December 2025, when the US enacted a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela, after placing additional sanctions affecting oil trade with the country. A week before announcing the blockade, the US seized the oil tanker Skipper in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela on 10 December, and then focused its military efforts on intercepting and pursuing other tankers trading with Venezuela. On 7 January 2026, the United States boarded and seized the Russian oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) in the Atlantic near Iceland and the Panama-flagged M Sophia in the Caribbean Sea. The Venezuelan government condemned the seizure of Skipper, describing it as an "act of international piracy".

Lore & Background

The operation was preceded by escalating US pressure on Venezuela. On 7 August 2025, the US Department of Justice raised a reward for the arrest of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to US$50 million; Maduro was indicted by a US federal court in 2020 and is accused of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine to the United States. The Trump administration accused the Maduro government of flooding the US with drugs, and pressured Maduro to step down.

Over the following months, the US Navy conducted its largest naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. As part of the deployment, the US began launching air strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September. By 10 December, the US had carried out 22 air strikes that killed at least 87 people. In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14245 that placed a 25% tariff on any country that imported Venezuelan oil due to Venezuela being "very hostile".

Reader's Guide

The operation involved multiple interceptions. On 20 December, the USCG boarded a second ship, the Panama-flagged Centuries, carrying 1.8 million barrels of crude oil off the coast of Venezuela. According to The Washington Post, neither the vessel nor its owner are sanctioned entities, and an unnamed source said the boarding was based on a history of the vessel transporting oil to China, and a "right to visit" law that "allows a warship to board and inspect a vessel it suspects is engaging in illicit activity".

Permission to board was obtained from Panama, which later stated that the vessel had violated Panamanian maritime law by turning off its transponder while sailing with crude. The USCG had been pursuing a third VLCC, Bella 1, since 20 December 2025, from the Caribbean through the Atlantic Ocean. The tanker had previously transported Iranian oil, and was en route to load Venezuelan oil purchased by a company associated with the recently-sanctioned Panamanian, Pedro Carretero.

The vessel was sanctioned by the US for "allegedly carrying black-market Iranian oil on behalf of ... Hezbollah and the Houthis" and "has links to the Quds Force". Heading for Venezuela with no cargo, the ship's crew resisted boarding on 20 December and the vessel made a U-turn with the USCG in pursuit. A Russian flag was painted on the vessel reported on 31 December in what US officials said was "an apparent attempt to claim protection from Moscow" although "international law stipulates that ships aren't permitted to change their flags mid-voyage unless there is a change of ownership or registration".

On that day, Russia sent a request through diplomatic channels to ask the United States to stop its pursuit of the tanker. By 1 January 2026, the vessel appeared on the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping under a new name, Marinera. On 6 January, it was reported that Marinera was being escorted by a Russian submarine and a navy vessel. The United States European Command announced on 7 January 2026, that Marinera had been seized by the USCG cutter Munro in the Atlantic Ocean waters between Iceland and Scotland, traveling northward and eastward.

Did You Know?

Skipper had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 for alleged involvement in an oil trafficking shadow fleet involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.
The USCG required a Maritime Special Response Team to intercept a hostile ship, and officials told The Wall Street Journal the team was in place for Bella 1, but because the tanker was old and not carrying oil, there was debate over whether it should be captured.
The Russian tanker Seahorse, sanctioned by the EU and UK, was forced several times by USS Stockdale to turn back towards Cuba while attempting to deliver naphtha to Venezuela, although it eventually reached Venezuela in November 2025.
Skipper had a history of issuing false transponder readings from October to December 2025 that falsified the ship's location, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and data from TankerTrackers.com.