<span>STORY: ::The U.S. Homeland Security chief shares video said to show the U.S. intercepting an oil tanker near Venezuela</span><span>::Released December 20, 2025</span><span>::Kristi Noem via X</span><span>A video shared on Noem’s social media account on X featured aerial footage of a helicopter approaching a vessel at sea, as she confirmed the Coast Guard intercepted a tanker that was last docked in Venezuela. </span><span>“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” she said in a statement accompanying the video. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”</span><span>British maritime risk management company Vanguard said the vessel was believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.</span><span>Reuters was able to confirm the vessel in the footage as Centuries, but not the date and location the video was recorded. However, vessel tracking data puts the last known location of the ship about 37 miles north of Curaçao on Friday (December 19).</span><span>It’s the second time in recent weeks that the United States has gone after a tanker near Venezuela amid a large U.S. military build-up in the region.</span><span>Venezuela’s oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment. The Venezuelan government called the tanker interception a “serious act of international piracy.”</span>
