00:00Two so-called Dark Fleet oil tankers were boarded and seized by U.S. forces
00:04after one of the ships eluded a blockade around Venezuela, changed its name,
00:09and reflagged itself as a Russian vessel in a failed two-week-long chase to evade capture.
00:15What are these supposed Dark Fleet oil tankers, the Bella One and M.T. Sophia?
00:20Here's everything you need to know.
00:22Heart-pumping video posted on X by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
00:26captured a morning raid on January 7th when U.S. Coast Guard personnel boarded two Ghost Fleet tanker ships.
00:33According to U.S. European Command, one of the ships, known as Bella One,
00:37was seized after it was spotted off Venezuela's coast,
00:40dodging a sweeping, Trump-imposed U.S. quarantine of vessels
00:44transporting oil to and from the South American country.
00:47The second tanker, the M.T. Sophia, was boarded near the Caribbean Sea
00:52while en route to Venezuela and sailing under a Panamanian flag.
00:57According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem,
00:59both ships were, quote,
01:01either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.
01:04So we're still learning details about what those two vessels were transporting.
01:08From what we've been told from U.S. officials,
01:10the Bella One is not believed to have been transporting oil.
01:13And there are some analysts that have lent credence to that by noting that photos of the vessel
01:18suggest that the hull is a bit higher than you would expect if it were carrying oil.
01:23But there are questions about what else the Bella One might have been transporting,
01:27given the fact that it seemed so interested in evading U.S. forces.
01:33The Bella One quickly made a U-turn in the Caribbean
01:35and set course northwest to evade capture by U.S. forces
01:39in a wild chase that lasted two weeks.
01:42The tanker even reportedly claimed it was under Moscow's protection
01:45and painted a crude Russian flag on the side of its hull.
01:49According to CNN, the ship later appeared on Russia's official ship register
01:53under the name The Marinara,
01:55and Moscow filed a formal diplomatic request for the U.S. to stop its pursuit.
01:59Russia had even reportedly dispatched military ships
02:02and a submarine to help the vessel reach Moscow's waters.
02:05Flagging itself as a Russian vessel would give Russia an excuse to try to defend the ship,
02:14which they reportedly did by dispatching military ships and a submarine.
02:18And also by flagging itself as a Russian ship,
02:21it would potentially try to deter the U.S.
02:24It was not successful in doing that from intercepting the ship
02:28for not wanting to risk further tensions with Russia.
02:32Of course, that wasn't successful.
02:33The U.S. raced there and intercepted the ship nonetheless.
02:39U.S. personnel eventually seized the oil tanker in the North Atlantic
02:42between Iceland and the British Isles.
02:44U.S. Southern Command said the M.T. Sophia was apprehended without incident
02:48and was being escorted to the U.S.
02:51An oil market analyst told NBC News that satellite imagery indicated the tanker was loaded
02:55with around 2 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil.
02:59The Bella One and M.T. Sophia are thought to be part of a so-called dark fleet of tankers
03:04used to deceptively transport sanctioned oil around the world.
03:08The Bella One has been under U.S. sanction since 2024 for transporting Iranian petrol
03:13and was originally flying under the flag of Guyana,
03:17whose government confirmed that the Bella One was not registered with it.
03:20U.S. Southern Command claimed the M.T. Sophia was a, quote,
03:23stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker
03:26that was conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea.
03:29So these ghost ships are basically vessels that are intended to evade sanctions,
03:36particularly from the U.S. and other Western countries.
03:39They're largely used by Russia, Iran, and a few other countries like Venezuela.
03:45The estimates vary about how many there are,
03:48but some of the estimates I've seen have indicated that there are between 500 and 1,400 of them.
03:54We really don't know.
03:55So, again, there are basically ships that are using various tactics to evade sanctions
04:01and get around Western forces.
04:06This isn't the first time the Trump administration has seized sneaky sanctioned tankers
04:10off the coast of Venezuela.
04:12Earlier in December, before U.S. troops swept in to arrest the country's president,
04:16Nicolas Maduro, U.S. troops seized one of the tankers on the South American country's coast,
04:21carrying an estimated 1.1 million barrels of crude oil.
04:24According to White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt,
04:27the tanker identified as Skipper by maritime analyst Vanguard,
04:31was allegedly the same, quote, sanctioned shadow vessel
04:34known for carrying black market-sanctioned oil to Iran.
04:38Skipper, which was falsely flying Guyana's flag and spoofed its location to avoid detection,
04:43is just one of more than 170 vessels the U.S. government has levied sanctions against
04:48for allegedly moving illicit oil.
04:50The Russians have fiercely denounced the U.S. interception of the Bella One,
04:57but Russia, of course, doesn't want to risk a conflict with the U.S.
05:01It's already fighting a very major war in Ukraine,
05:05and it would not want the U.S. to step up support for Ukraine
05:09or to get into some sort of military confrontation with the U.S.
05:15But there are risks that in the future you could see other countries like Russia
05:21intercepting U.S. vessels or something to that effect in retaliation.
05:27So there are concerns that this could impact shipping in the future.
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