U.S. military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday (January 20, 2026) as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil.

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 Donald 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.

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.

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 sailing 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.

Mr. Trump told reporters just hours before the announcement that the U.S. has already 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.”

The United States ‍has seized another Venezuela-linked tanker, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday (January 15, 2026), ahead ​of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump ‌and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

The seizure ​marks the sixth vessel targeted in recent weeks that was either carrying Venezuelan oil or had done so in the past. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the seizure took place in the Caribbean.

The U.S. military’s Southern Command confirmed the pre-dawn operation, saying U.S. forces ​apprehended Motor/Tanker Veronica “without incident”. It said the Veronica ⁠was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated ​properly and lawfully,” Southern ⁠Command said in a statement.

The seizures began as part of Trump’s campaign to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of power, which culminated in U.S. forces swooping into the ‌country to “capture” him and his wife on January ‌3, 2026.

Since then, Mr. Trump has said the United States plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely ‍as it seeks to rebuild the country’s dilapidated oil industry.

The vessels intercepted so far have been either under U.S. sanctions or ‍part of a “shadow fleet” of unregulated ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers – Iran, Russia or Venezuela.

Last week, the U.S. seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic. The move was condemned by Moscow.

The latest seizure came ahead ⁠of Thursday’s (January 15, 2026) meeting between Mr. Trump and Ms. Machado, in their first face-to-face meeting since the U.S. ousted her ​long-time foe, Mr. Maduro.

Mr. Trump has previously called her a “freedom fighter” ⁠but dismissed the idea of installing her to lead Venezuela after ousting Mr. Maduro, saying she did not have enough domestic support.

A classified CIA assessment presented to Mr. Trump concluded that Mr. Maduro loyalists, including Ms. Rodriguez, were best ⁠positioned to maintain stability.

White House and State Department ‍officials have told U.S. oil executives in recent weeks that they would need to return to Venezuela ​quickly and invest significant capital in the country to revive the damaged oil industry ‌if they wanted compensation for assets expropriated by Venezuela two decades ago, according ​to two people familiar with the outreach.

In the 2000s, Venezuela expropriated the assets of some international oil companies that declined to give the state-run oil company PDVSA increased operational control, as demanded by late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. U.S. oil major Chevron was among the companies that negotiated to stay in the country and form joint ventures with state-run PDVSA, while rivals Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips left and filed for arbitration.

President Donald Trump said on Saturday (January 3, 2026) that American companies were prepared ​to return to Venezuela and spend billions to reactivate the struggling oil sector, ⁠just hours after President Nicolás Maduro was captured and removed by U.S. forces.

In the recent U.S. administration discussions with oil executives in the scenario that Maduro was out of power, officials have said that U.S. oil companies would ​need to front the investment money themselves to ⁠rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry. That would be one of the preconditions for them eventually recovering debts from the expropriations.

That would be a costly investment for firms such as ConocoPhillips, the sources said. Conoco for years has tried to recover some $12 billion from the Chavez-era nationalization ‌of its Venezuela assets. Exxon Mobil also filed international arbitration cases, trying to recover $1.65 ‌billion.

Mr. Trump began making public reference to the Venezuelan expropriations when he ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers last month.

Conditions for a return

Whether or not ‍the companies return would depend on how executives, boards and shareholders evaluate the risk of renewed investment in Venezuela, the sources said.

“ConocoPhillips is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global ‍energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments,” a company spokesperson said in emailed comments to Reuters on Saturday (January 3). The company reiterated the statement on Sunday when asked about discussions with administration officials for this story.

Exxon did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters on Sunday (January 4).

Politico first reported on the recent discussions on Saturday (January 3). Even if companies do agree to return to the country, it could be years before there is a meaningful boost to oil output. The South American country has one of the largest estimated reserves in the world, ⁠but production has plummeted over the past decades amid mismanagement, lack of investment and U.S. sanctions.

Besides uncertainty surrounding the contract framework for any operations there, companies considering ​a return would also need to deal with security concerns, poor infrastructure, questions about the legality of ⁠the U.S. operation to capture Mr. Maduro and the possibility of long-term political instability, analysts have told Reuters.

Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, produced as much as 3.5 million barrels per day in the 1970s, which at the time represented over 7% of global oil output. Production fell below 2 million bpd during the 2010s and averaged around 1.1 ⁠million bpd last year, or just 1% of global production.

Russia is prepared to respond to Venezuela’s requests for assistance, while urging against any escalation of tension in the region, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday (November 7, 2025).

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has appealed to Moscow for military support, including repairs to Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets, upgrades to radar systems, and the delivery of missile systems.

The request was made in response to what Caracas views as growing threats from Washington, which has built up a large military presence in the Caribbean in recent months.

Russia on Sunday (October 5, 2025) condemned a U.S. strike on a vessel allegedly carrying illegal drugs off the coast of Venezuela and cautioned about the dangers of potential U.S. escalation in the entire Caribbean region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, spoke to his Venezuelan counterpart, Yvan Gil, by telephone on Sunday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“Sergei Lavrov said that Russia strongly condemns the new strike by the U.S. armed forces on October 3 on a ship in international waters near Venezuela,” the Ministry said.

“The Ministers expressed serious concern about Washington’s escalating actions in the Caribbean Sea that are fraught with far-reaching consequences for the region,” it said.

Four people were killed in the October 3 strike on the vessel which Washington accused of transporting “substantial amounts of narcotics— headed to America to poison our people.”

Moscow said that there was “no certainty that the United States will not in any way link its declared war against drug cartels with the situation in Haiti”.

Russia also cautioned against attempts to broadly interpret a recent U.N.

Security Council resolution to more than double the size of an 15-month-old underfunded and understaffed international security mission combating armed gangs in Haiti.

Russia, China and Pakistan abstained from the vote on the measure put forward by the United States and Panama. The remaining 13 council members voted in favour.

“The Russian side has confirmed its full support and solidarity with the leadership and people of Venezuela in the current context,” the Russian Ministry said.