On December 12, 2025, the United States seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, igniting a diplomatic firestorm and threatening to plunge crisis-stricken Cuba even deeper into an energy abyss. The move, which comes amid a revived and aggressive U.S. sanctions campaign against Venezuela’s oil sector, has sent shockwaves through the Caribbean and beyond, raising fears of worsening blackouts, economic hardship, and a dramatic escalation in U.S.-Venezuela tensions.
For Cuba, the timing could hardly be worse. The island nation, governed by the Communist Party and long battered by a Cold War-era U.S. trade embargo, has endured months of rolling blackouts that stretch for hours each day. Factories grind to a halt, homes swelter in the tropical heat, and residents—already exhausted by years of deprivation—face mounting frustration. The root of the problem is a chronic fuel shortage, and at the heart of Cuba’s fragile energy lifeline lies Venezuela’s crude oil.
According to internal documents from Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and shipping data cited by Reuters, Venezuela shipped an average of 27,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products to Cuba between January and November 2025—a drop from 32,000 barrels per day the previous year. These shipments cover roughly half of Cuba’s oil deficit, or about a quarter of the island’s total energy demand, according to Jorge Pinon, an energy analyst at the University of Texas at Austin. "Now that Mexico is sending less oil and Russian supply in large quantities has not materialized, I just don't see any other alternatives," Pinon told Reuters. "Times are tough and are going to get tougher."
The U.S. action this week could make those tough times even more dire. The seized vessel, identified as the Skipper, was carrying sanctioned Venezuelan crude and, according to satellite images analyzed by TankerTrackers.com, had already offloaded some of its cargo near Curaçao to another tanker bound for Cuba. This maneuver reflects a pattern seen throughout 2025: third-party supertankers load oil in Venezuela, make clandestine stops in the Caribbean to transfer portions of their cargo to Cuba-bound vessels, and then proceed to China or other destinations with the remainder.
But the U.S. is now determined to disrupt these shadowy supply chains. On December 11, the Treasury Department slapped fresh sanctions on six additional very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and their operating companies, accusing them of "deceptive and unsafe shipping practices" that prop up what U.S. officials call Nicolás Maduro’s "corrupt narco-terrorist regime." Four of the newly sanctioned tankers are flagged in Panama, with the others registered in the Cook Islands and Hong Kong. The crackdown also targeted Ramon Carretero Napolitano, a Panamanian businessman accused of facilitating petroleum shipments for Venezuela, as well as three nephews of Venezuela’s first lady, Cilia Flores, two of whom had previously been convicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and released in a 2022 prisoner swap.
Washington’s pressure campaign is not limited to financial measures. The U.S. military has deployed 15,000 troops and warships to the Caribbean, marking the largest build-up in the region since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the administration’s position clear: "We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world." She confirmed that the seized vessel would be brought to a U.S. port and that the oil would be confiscated following legal procedures.
According to TankerTrackers.com, more than 80 vessels were loaded or waiting to load off Venezuela as of December 11, including over 30 already under U.S. sanctions—a sign that the U.S. has ample targets for what is shaping up to be its most assertive maritime enforcement campaign in years. Multiple U.S. officials told Reuters that further direct interventions, including additional tanker seizures, are expected in the coming weeks. These could target not only ships carrying Venezuelan oil but also vessels transporting oil from other sanctioned countries, such as Iran.
The response from Havana and Caracas was swift and furious. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced the tanker seizure as "an act of piracy, a violation of International Law, and an escalation of aggression against that sister country." Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro echoed the outrage, calling the action "an act of piracy against a merchant, commercial, civil and private vessel," and accusing Washington of seeking to "steal" Venezuela’s oil. "It is the oil they want to steal, and Venezuela will protect its oil," Maduro declared. Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, went further, labeling the U.S. "murderers, thieves, [and] pirates," and promised to take the case to international bodies.
For ordinary Cubans, the geopolitical drama translates into immediate hardship. With Mexican oil exports to Cuba shrinking and much-anticipated Russian deliveries failing to arrive in significant quantities, the island’s energy options are dwindling. Shipping operators and vessel owners are now rethinking their routes, wary of running afoul of U.S. enforcement and risking the loss of valuable cargo—or even their ships themselves.
Some analysts worry that if the U.S. continues to intercept tankers en route from Venezuela, Cuba’s energy crisis could spiral into outright catastrophe. The island’s government has announced plans to accelerate the development of solar parks as part of a broader push for renewable energy. Yet officials concede that the country’s aging, oil-fired power plants will continue to require fuel for the foreseeable future, limiting the immediate impact of any green transition.
Meanwhile, the specifics of the oil trade between Cuba and Venezuela remain shrouded in secrecy. Cuba has long provided security and intelligence services to Maduro’s government, but it’s unclear how those arrangements factor into the current fuel exchanges. Some Russian naphtha cargoes have also been split between Cuba and Venezuela this year, with tankers delivering parcels to each country in turn to maximize the efficiency of the limited shadow fleet.
As Washington doubles down on sanctions and military deployments, and as Havana and Caracas vow to resist what they call U.S. "piracy," the fate of millions of Cubans hangs in the balance. The next few weeks could prove decisive—not just for Cuba’s energy security, but for the broader power struggle playing out across the Caribbean.
For now, as the legal process unfolds and more tankers face the risk of seizure, Cuba’s lights flicker, its factories stall, and its leaders scramble for alternatives that seem ever more elusive.
