The ship was off the coast of Venezuela, near Trinidad. The oil tanker, which previously sailed under the name Minerva M, is on the US sanctions list for ships sailing to and from Venezuela, the US Wall Street Journal reports.
The operation took place before sunrise, and was carried out by the US Marine Corps and Navy, which used helicopters in the takeover.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Olina “is another ship in the ‘ghost fleet’ suspected of transporting embargoed oil.”
It is the fifth oil tanker that the United States has boarded in the ongoing conflict surrounding the so-called ghost fleet, with links to Russia.
By November at the latest
According to early reports, the ship was flagged in East Timor, but its formal registration was not clarified.
The American operation is said to be exacerbating the current tension between Washington, D.C., and Moscow, and the boarding comes after the US seized a ship that said it was traveling under Russian protection and was escorted by the Russian navy.
The last time the oil tanker Olina announced its position was in mid-November, according to Marine Traffic, which monitors maritime traffic.
The effort is also a way to increase pressure on Venezuela's interim government.
The United States last week arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a large-scale operation against Caracas. The government in Caracas has been replaced with an interim government, sanctioned by the United States.
Strike in the Atlantic
In parallel, in recent weeks the United States has carried out several raids against Russia's so-called "ghost" or "shadow" fleet - tankers transporting sanctioned oil that Russia is believed to be selling on the black market.
On Wednesday, the US seized the oil tanker Marinera in the North Atlantic, with support from the UK. Earlier that day, the ship Sophia was seized in the Caribbean Sea.
