U.S. military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to take control of the oil in the South American country.
U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post that U.S. forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta “without incident” and that the tanker was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
The military command did not say whether the U.S. Coast Guard took control of the tanker as has been the case in prior seizures.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions for more details. Southern Command said it had nothing to add to its post.
The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker and its registration says it is owned and managed by a company in Hong Kong. The ship last transmitted its location more than two months ago when exiting the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.
The tanker was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department under an executive order related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
U.S. President Donald Trump is urging top oil executives to move quickly on developing Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. But few seem eager to jump in with both feet in the days after U.S. forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The post from U.S. Southern Command, however, indicated the ship had taken oil from Venezuela. It said the capture of the tanker “demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully.”
The military command posted what appeared to be aerial footage of the Sagitta on the ocean, but unlike in prior videos, the clip did not show U.S. forces flying toward it in helicopters or landing on the deck of the ship.
Venezuela, oil and the U.S.
Since the U.S. ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has set out to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products.
Officials in Trump’s Republican administration have made it clear they see seizing the tankers as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies nearly two weeks ago to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion US in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. He said at the time that the U.S. expected to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil.
Trump told reporters just hours before the announcement that the U.S. has taken 50 million barrels of oil out of Venezuela already.
“We’ve got millions of barrels of oil left,” he said at the White House. “We’re selling it on the open market.”
The first tanker was seized off the coast of Venezuela on Dec. 10. Most of the other tankers also have been captured in the waters near Venezuela, with the exception of the Bella 1, which was captured in the North Atlantic.
The Bella 1 had been cruising across the Atlantic and nearing the Caribbean until Dec. 15, when it abruptly turned and headed north, toward Europe. The ship was ultimately captured on Jan. 8.
After forcibly removing Maduro from power, Trump said the U.S. will “run” the country for an indeterminate time period.
Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Venezuela’s vice-president under Maduro, has become the country’s interim president in the wake of his ouster.
For months prior to Maduro’s capture, the U.S. had ramped up pressure on Caracas via a military build-up in the region, the oil tanker seizures, and a series strikes on alleged drug boats off Venezuela’s coast — though U.S. forces have also attacked vessels in the Eastern Pacific.
The U.S. military build-up had raised questions as to whether Washington intended to invade Venezuela.