US seizes 10th tanker, VLCC Bertha, in Indian Ocean

The US military’s Department of War, a Trump administration rebranding of the Department of Defense, has confirmed that US forces have taken control of another tanker, the 10th vessel seized in a US crackdown on sanctioned trading of Venezuelan oil that began when US forces seized a Venezuela-linked VLCC in early December. 

Posting to its feed on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the Department of War said the VLCC, Bertha, "was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean".

"From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it," the US military account said, noting that "international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned actors."

Independent crude oil shipments tracker Tanker Trackers predicted the US interdiction of the vessel on 15 February in a post on X following the interdiction of a similarly sanctioned VLCC connected to trading in Venezuela, Veronica III. 

"Following today’s interdiction in the South Indian Ocean by the US Coast Guard of the VLCC supertanker Veronica III (9326055), laden with Venezuelan fuel oil and crude oil, there is now only one oil‑laden tanker left to pursue from the original 16 that broke through the US Navy blockade on 3 January 2026. [Its] name is Bertha (9292163) and goes by the zombie alias ’Ekta’. Only a matter of time now," TankerTrackers wrote.

The VLCCs both departed from Venezuela, fully laden with Venezuelan fuel oil and crude oil, on 3 January 2026, the day that US forces captured and extradited Venezuela’s disputed leader, Nicolás Maduro. The vessels were part of a group of at least 16 tankers that formed a flotilla and sailed from Venezuela in an attempt to break away from the US naval blockade. 

Both VesselsValue and the Equasis vessel database list ownership details for 2004-built Veronica III as owned by a China-based company known as Shanghai Legendary Ship Management. The Chinese entity is shown to have a three-vessel fleet of tankers, with one Aframax and one Suezmax in addition to the VLCC. In December 2024, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named Shanghai Legendary Ship Management and its vessels in a round of sanctions for what OFAC said was their "critical role in transporting illicit Iranian petroleum to foreign markets".

The tanker is shown by the Equasis vessels database as falsely sailing under a Curacao flag and by VesselsValue’s database as sailing under a Cook Islands flag. Previously classed by Lloyd’s Register, the vessel also saw its classification withdrawn after being added to sanctions lists.

• US court reveals warrants to seize tankers, with reports of requests for ’dozens’ more

• Video: US seizes sixth tanker, with links to Russia, off Venezuela

• Video: US confirms fifth Venezuela-linked tanker seized in Caribbean Sea
• US confirms seizure of Russia-flagged oil tanker in Atlantic and another tanker in Caribbean
• Venezuela: how US action will redraw the tanker trades
• Trump uses social media to order ’complete blockade’ of sanctioned tankers visiting Venezuela
• US adds to Venezuelan sanctions with VLCC targets, does not rule out seizing more ships
• Video: US forces seize oil tanker off Venezuela