Supertankers Bound For Venezuela Make U-Turns, Fearing US Interdiction, As PDVSA Hit By Cyberattack

 Fresh reporting in Reuters has tracked at least five supertankers which have changed course on Monday after initially heading to Venezuela to load crude oil, following this month's US naval seizure of a Venezuelan tanker.

Among these was a Russian tanker transporting crude for Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA, along with at least four other supertankers en route to Venezuelan ports. They made u-turns on fears of facing US military interdiction. 

This also comes after last Friday Bloomberg and others reported that Washington was preparing to carry out further seizures of sanction-linked oil tankers off Venezuela's coast.

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil condemned these moves and threats as piracy, calling it an "illegal and aggressive act of sabotage."

Officially at least, the Trump-ordered military build-up in the southern Caribbean is all about disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking operations. But many analysts see the real motivator is ease of access to major underground oil reserves.

This has meant that Venezuela’s oil exports are effectively paralyzed, with the exception of Chevron's shipments which are operating under US authorization.

Meanwhile, those earlier telegraphed Trump-authorized CIA covert ops appear to be well underway, given new reports of a major cyber attack on Venezuela's national oil company.

"Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has been subject to a cyberattack, it said on Monday, adding its operations were unaffected, even though four sources said systems remained down and oil cargo deliveries were suspended," according to Reuters.

PDVSA in a statement said that foreign interests were complicit with domestic entities in the cyberattack, as part of Washington's broader efforts to control the nation's sovereign resources oil by "force and piracy." PDVSA further said it was recovering from the attack and trying to bring systems online.

Venezuela Oil Output Could Plunge 300-500k bpd from US Pressure

Dark fleet exports crashing
Naphtha imports (key diluent) at risk#IEA: Already down 150k bpd in Nov to 860k bpd.#Chevron ops may hold longer... but big drop coming.

Don't miss my latest Article on #Venezuela… pic.twitter.com/xh1E7ovLMb

— Jack Prandelli (@jackprandelli) December 15, 2025

However, some sources have said that the effects from the cyberattack are still ongoing, with a company source stating: "There is no delivery of cargoes, all systems are down."

In total the threat of seizures has left several tankers loaded with a combined 11 million barrels of oil and fuel basically stuck in Venezuelan and Caribbean waters.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/supertankers-bound-venezuela-make-u-turns-fearing-us-interdiction-pdvsa-hit-cyberattack