US military forces apprehended an oil tanker on Tuesday that was purportedly carrying oil from Venezuela, officials said.
The US Southern Command said in a social media post that US forces boarded and took control of Motor Vessel Sagitta “without incident” and that the tanker was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean”. It did not say whether the US Coast Guard took control of the tanker as has been the case in prior seizures.
The post indicated the ship had taken oil from Venezuela, and 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”.
This is the seventh oil tanker seized by the US that’s connected with Venezuela as US President Donald Trump attempts to take control of the country’s oil. Both the Pentagon and Southern Command said they had nothing to add when asked for more details.
Meanwhile, Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the US already has taken 50 million barrels of oil out of 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.”
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The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker that’s owned and managed by a company in Hong Kong, as per its registration. It was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department under an executive order related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The ship last transmitted its location more than two months ago when exiting the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.
In what appeared to be aerial footage of the Sagitta sailing on the ocean, shared by the military command, there were no clips of the US forces flying toward it in helicopters or landing on the deck of the ship, unlike in prior videos.
Since the US capture of Venezuela President, Nicolas Maduro, in a surprise nighttime raid on January 3, the Trump administration has made its intentions clear regarding control the South American country’s oil production, refining and global distribution, for which Trump also met executives from oil companies nearly two weeks ago.
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 said he plans to invest USD 100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. He also said at the time that the US expected to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil.
The first tanker was seized off the coast of Venezuela on December 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 when on Dec. 15 it abruptly turned and headed north, toward Europe. The ship was ultimately captured on January 7.
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