US military forces on Tuesday boarded and seized a seventh oil tanker connected to Venezuela, continuing the Trump administration’s campaign to dominate the nation’s petroleum sector.
In a social media post, US Southern Command stated its forces captured the Motor Vessel Sagitta without incident. The command said the tanker was breaching President Donald Trump’s declared quarantine on sanctioned vessels in Caribbean waters.
The command did not clarify if the US Coast Guard executed the operation, as it has in past seizures. The Pentagon and Southern Command offered no further details.
The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker registered to a firm based in Hong Kong. Its last location signal was over two months ago after it departed the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. The US Treasury Department had previously sanctioned the vessel under an executive order related to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Southern Command said the tanker had taken oil from Venezuela, adding that the seizure “demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully.”
The command released aerial footage showing the Sagitta at sea, though unlike earlier operations the video did not show US helicopters approaching or troops boarding the vessel.
Since the US-led ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise overnight raid on 3 January, the Trump administration has moved to take control of Venezuela’s oil production, refining and global distribution.
Administration officials have said seizing tankers is part of an effort to generate revenue to rebuild the country’s battered oil industry and revive its economy.
Trump met oil industry executives nearly two weeks ago to discuss plans to invest $100 billion in Venezuela’s energy sector and said the US expects to sell between 30 million and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil.
Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the US has already taken 50 million barrels of oil out of Venezuela. “We’ve got millions of barrels of oil left,” he said. “We’re selling it on the open market. We’re bringing down oil prices incredibly.”
The first tanker was seized off Venezuela’s coast on 10 December. Most of the others were captured in nearby waters, except for the Bella 1, which was intercepted in the North Atlantic after abruptly turning back toward Europe on 15 December and was seized on 7 January.
