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The United States on Friday, January 9, detained the oil tanker Olina in the Caribbean Sea near Trinidad, marking the fifth such interception in recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to U.S. officials, the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker while continuing to monitor other vessels suspected of attempting to bypass U.S. restrictions on tankers traveling to and from sanctioned Venezuela.
Reuters reported that Olina, which according to the public shipping database Equasis had been incorrectly sailing under the flag of East Timor, had previously departed Venezuela. The tanker later returned to the region, where it was seized by U.S. authorities.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said the vessel had been involved in exporting Russian crude oil and petroleum products during the G7+ oil embargo. The shipments reportedly originated from Russian ports in the Baltic and Black Seas, as well as the Pacific region, with China, India and Turkey listed as the main destinations.
Environmental group Greenpeace has classified Olina as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” — a network of aging tankers used to transport Russian oil worldwide while posing significant environmental risks.
Due to its role in carrying Russian oil and petroleum products, the tanker has been sanctioned by several countries. The United Kingdom imposed restrictions on December 17, 2024, followed by U.S. sanctions on January 10, 2025, and Canadian sanctions on February 21, 2025.
Earlier, on January 7, U.S. forces detained the Russian-linked tanker Bella 1, now renamed Marinera, which is also considered part of the shadow fleet transporting sanctioned oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. U.S. authorities cited sanctions violations as the reason for the seizure.
In addition to Marinera, the United States has also detained another sanctioned tanker in the Caribbean, Sophia, as part of its broader crackdown on vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet.
