US seizes a seventh Venezuela-linked oil tanker 

The United States military announced that it has seized a seventh Venezuela-linked oil tanker, as the US tightens its control over the production and sale of the country’s considerable oil resources.

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees military operations in Latin America, said on Tuesday that it captured the Motor Vessel Sagitta as part of its blockade on oil vessels leaving and entering the country.

“The apprehension of another tanker operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” SOUTHCOM said in a statement.

It added that Tuesday’s tanker seizure occurred “without incident”, sharing a video appearing to show US forces flying towards the vessel and landing on its deck.

The US began seizing sanctioned tankers on December 10, as part of a campaign of increasing pressure on Venezuela.

Tensions between the US and Venezuela came to a peak on January 3, when US President Donald Trump authorised a predawn military operation to abduct his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro.

In the lead-up to that operation, Trump and allies like Stephen Miller had been increasingly vocal about laying claim to Venezuelan oil, given the US’s history of prospecting for petroleum there in the early 20th century.

But by 1971, Venezuela had nationalised its oil industry. Efforts to expropriate assets from foreign oil companies in 2007 have further fuelled criticism from the Trump administration, which considers Venezuelan oil “stolen” from US owners.

Legal experts, however, largely consider such arguments a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty.

Trump has nevertheless said the US will control Venezuela’s oil and has used the threat of further military attacks to pressure Venezuela’s government into compliance.

The Trump administration has also placed steep sanctions on Venezuela’s economy, as part of a trend stretching back to the Republican leader’s first term as president.

The US has framed the tanker seizures as a way of enforcing those sanctions, although the legality of using military force to enforce economic penalties is disputed.

Trump and his officials have said that the sale of Venezuelan oil on the world market will be dictated by the US and that the proceeds from those sales will be placed in a US-controlled bank account.

Trump has also used control over Venezuela’s oil to ratchet up pressure on Cuba, for which access to Venezuelan oil is an important economic lifeline.

The US president told reporters on Tuesday at a White House briefing that he has taken 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.

“We’ve got millions of barrels of oil left,” he said at the White House. “We’re selling it on the open market. We’re bringing down oil prices incredibly.”

Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, said that her country had received $300m from recent oil sales. In her inaugural state of the union address last week, she signalled that her administration would reform the country’s hydrocarbon law to allow more foreign investment in future.