According to a report by the Financial Times, Donald Trump expanded his pressure campaign on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro this week with a dramatic high seas seizure by U.S. forces of an oil tanker carrying the South American country’s crude.
The U.S. president followed up with a series of sanctions, intensifying Washington’s economic crackdown even as he avoids—so far—military action on Venezuelan soil.
Trump on Friday declined to say whether he intends to seize more Venezuelan oil assets, but stated that attacking “by land is a lot easier and that’s going to start happening”.
The moves come as the Trump administration is facing mounting scrutiny over the legality of the deadly U.S. attacks on alleged drug smuggling boats, and doubts, including from some Republicans, about the merits of an expanded military campaign.
Trump states that all options for Venezuela are on the table. But the focus on the oil sector would increase the financial pressure on the regime and could give Washington a path to craft a negotiated solution to the standoff with Maduro.
“I think Trump is simply pulling a new tool out of the box to threaten Maduro, who hopefully will get the hint, because the next tool will be air strikes,” said James Stavridis, a former commander of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees American military operations in the region.
On Thursday, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, suggested that Washington would seize more tankers, but did not want a “prolonged” conflict.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.
Fifty-five tankers affected by the sanctions have participated in Venezuelan oil trades in the last year, with 15 of them currently in the Caribbean region, according to real-time data and analytics firm Kpler.
Washington on Thursday imposed sanctions on six shipping companies and six more oil tankers for their role in Venezuela’s energy sector. It also imposed sanctions on three nephews of Maduro’s wife, calling them “narco-traffickers.”
Maduro spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, but the conversation was dismissed by the White House. “I don’t think that would be concerning to [Trump] at all,” said Leavitt.
With the tanker seizure, “the two capitals that should be watching closely are Moscow and Tehran, both of whom have big equities in sanctioned shadow fleets around the world,” said Stavridis.
The vessel dramatically seized by U.S. forces on Wednesday, Skipper, was “falsely flying” the Guyanese flag, the country’s Maritime Administration Department said on Thursday.
Skipper was hit with sanctions by the U.S. in 2022, when it was called the Adisa, for allegedly being part of an oil smuggling network funding Hizbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Leavitt said the U.S. intends to seize the tanker’s cargo, which will be taken to an American port. “There is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”
Analysts said any further seizures of sanctions-hit vessels by the U.S. could largely halt Venezuelan crude exports.
“A campaign of seizures could freeze Venezuela’s exports,” said Kevin Book, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners, a Washington-based consultancy.
Maduro’s government depends on income from oil exports, which have almost doubled to 900,000 barrels a day in the past five years. About 80 of the exports sail to China. U.S. oil company Chevron produces about 240,000 barrels per day in Venezuela.
Kpler said the seizure of the Skipper was a “notable escalation” in Trump’s pressure on the regime but may be a “targeted message” rather than a new campaign.
“Large-scale interdictions would risk significant market disruption, escalate tensions with nonaligned states, and stretch enforcement resources,” he said.
Oil prices rose a bit after the U.S. seized the vessel, although international benchmark Brent remains at just over $61 a barrel.
The relatively modest price means there is “room in the oil price for economic pressure on producers,” said Book.
