BuzzNews

The United States seizes a fifth oil tanker from Venezuela

Perlina Rossi-Brown

2026-01-12 16:43:40

Credit: Getty Images/Kristi Noem on X

The United States announced on Friday that it had seized a new oil tanker from Venezuela, a country with immense oil reserves that Washington wants to take control of after capturing its president, Nicolas Maduro. This is the fifth such operation since the blockade on Venezuelan oil decided by US President Donald Trump on December 16. The Olina, a large 250-meter-long oil tanker flying the flag of East Timor (according to the MarineTraffic website), is subject to US sanctions related to Russia.

"Ghost fleets will not escape justice."

The US Coast Guard boarded it “early this morning […] in international waters in the Caribbean Sea.” The latter “had left Venezuela seeking to escape US forces,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X. “Ghost fleets will not escape justice, they will not hide behind false declarations of nationality,” she added. According to the specialized website Tanker Tracker, the seizure of the Olina brings the total seized by Washington in a few weeks to more than 6 million barrels of oil, worth a total of some $300 million.

A surveillance campaign

The United States is thus continuing its campaign to monitor ships suspected of attempting to evade the embargo on Venezuelan oil. Just two days earlier, the United States announced that it had seized two oil tankers during operations carried out on the high seas, one in the North Atlantic and the other in the Caribbean. The seizure of the ship in the North Atlantic, carried out after weeks of pursuit by the US Coast Guard, angered Moscow, which claims that the ship was flying the Russian flag, something Washington has not acknowledged.

The world's largest crude oil reserves

Since last summer, the United States has deployed a large military force in the Caribbean and bombed boats from Venezuela in the name of fighting drug trafficking, operations whose legality has been questioned by experts, NGOs, and United Nations officials. Venezuela has the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world. However, its oil industry is in very poor shape after decades of underinvestment and produces only about 1 million barrels per day.

Trump invites major oil companies

On Friday, Donald Trump welcomed the heads of major oil companies to the White House in an attempt to rally them behind his strategy in Venezuela, where he intends to impose control over black gold for many years to come. The US president said that 14 companies were expected.He aims to get these companies to “spend at least $100 billion” on Venezuelan oil exploitation. According to NBC News, executives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips were among those in attendance.