# Venezuela Suspends Energy Talks With Trinidad and Tobago After Tanker Seizure Accusation
*Event date: 2025-12-15*
By IO Digest Desk
Venezuela said on December 15, 2025 that it was suspending all agreements, contracts and negotiations on natural gas with Trinidad and Tobago after accusing the Caribbean nation of taking part in a US seizure of an oil tanker near the Venezuelan coast. The move, reported by The Guardian, sharply escalated tensions between Caracas and Port of Spain and added a new regional dimension to Washington’s pressure campaign against President Nicolas Maduro.
In a statement posted in the name of Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez, the Maduro government said Trinidad and Tobago had participated in what it called the theft of Venezuelan oil during a US operation on December 10. The vessel, identified as the *Skipper*, was reportedly intercepted near Venezuela while carrying nearly 2 million barrels of heavy crude. Caracas described the seizure as piracy and a serious violation of international law and free navigation.
The statement did not specify exactly what role Trinidad and Tobago was alleged to have played in the seizure. But it came hours after Port of Spain announced that it would allow the US military to use its airports in the coming weeks for logistical activities, including supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations, following the installation of a radar system. Trinidad and Tobago said the radar was intended to combat domestic crime and would not be used as a platform for attacks on any other country.
Caracas nonetheless used the moment to accuse Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of aligning her government with Washington. The Venezuelan statement said the prime minister was turning the twin-island state into an “aircraft carrier” for the United States against Venezuela and cited the installation of US military radars as part of what it called a hostile agenda. The result was an immediate shutdown of talks over cross-border gas cooperation, including long-discussed plans linked to the Dragon field in Venezuelan waters near Tobago.
Those gas negotiations had already been fragile. In October, the United States granted Trinidad and Tobago permission to negotiate a gas deal with Venezuela without triggering sanctions. But Maduro later ordered an immediate suspension of the arrangement after a US warship docked in Port of Spain. The December 15 announcement went further by halting any agreement or negotiation outright, turning a recurring dispute into a full diplomatic rupture in the energy sector.
Trinidad and Tobago had not publicly answered the new accusation at the time of the report, although Persad-Bissessar had said during an earlier dispute that her country’s future did not depend on Venezuela. Domestic critics in Trinidad and Tobago were also warning that the government risked being drawn into Trump’s campaign against Maduro. An opposition senator and former foreign minister said the country had become complicit in cross-border belligerence, while questioning the government’s description of the US airport access as routine.
With only about 11 kilometers separating the two countries at their closest point, the confrontation has both practical and symbolic weight. It threatens a potentially valuable gas project, raises questions about the expanding US military footprint in the southern Caribbean, and signals how quickly regional governments can be pulled into Washington’s conflict with Caracas. The central allegation against Trinidad and Tobago remained unproven in the evidence packet. But Venezuela’s decision to freeze energy ties made clear that, for Caracas, the diplomatic cost had already been imposed.
