On Tuesday, January 20, the U.S. military detained a Liberian-flagged oil tanker named “Sagitta” in the Caribbean Sea. This marks the seventh oil tanker intercepted since the Trump administration began controlling Venezuela’s oil exports.
The U.S. Southern Command confirmed that this seizure operation was part of “Operation Southern Spear,” carried out jointly by the military in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, and the entire process was “without incident.”
In a statement released on X, the Southern Command stated, “We have once again detained an oil tanker ignoring President Trump’s Caribbean Sea sanctions order, demonstrating our determination to ensure that oil departing Venezuela is only through proper coordination and legal means.”
The detained “Sagitta” is a Liberian-flagged oil tanker, and according to its registration information, the ship is owned and managed by a company based in Hong Kong.
The last time the “Sagitta” transmitted location data was over two months ago as it sailed out from the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. The U.S. Treasury Department had previously placed the tanker on a sanctions list based on an executive order related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On January 3, following the late-night raid and arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. military, the Trump administration took control of Venezuela’s oil production, refining, and global distribution.
U.S. officials explicitly stated that detaining the oil tanker was to raise funds to rebuild Venezuela’s damaged oil industry and restore its economy.
The Trump administration aims to attract around $100 billion in corporate investment to repair Venezuela’s oil facilities.
On Tuesday, President Trump stated to reporters at the White House that the U.S. had extracted 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.
“We still have millions of barrels of oil left,” Trump said. “We are selling these oils openly on the market, rapidly driving down oil prices.”
Currently, the U.S. Southern Command is commanding nearly 12 warships and thousands of soldiers on missions in the Caribbean Sea. The targets intercepted by the U.S. forces typically belong to so-called “shadow fleets,” ships that disguise their origins to transport oil from Iran, Russia, or Venezuela.