{"id":699059,"date":"2026-01-16T03:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/699059\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T03:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:48:10","slug":"us-seizes-sixth-tanker-as-venezuelas-interim-leader-vows-oil-sector-reform-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/699059\/","title":{"rendered":"US seizes sixth tanker as Venezuela\u2019s interim leader vows oil sector reform | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

US forces say another Venezuela-linked tanker seized as Trump continues moves to take control of nation\u2019s oil reserves.<\/p>\n

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Published On 16 Jan 202616 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

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United States forces have seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean that the Trump administration said had links to Venezuela, the sixth tanker vessel detained<\/a> as Washington moves to take full control of Venezuelan oil resources.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the US Coast Guard had boarded the tanker Veronica early on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Noem said the vessel had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cestablished quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean\u201d.<\/p>\n

US Marines and sailors stationed on board the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford took part in the operation alongside a coastguard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding.<\/p>\n

The US military said the ship was seized \u201cwithout incident\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by US forces as part of President Trump\u2019s promise to take indefinite control of the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela\u2019s oil products. It was also the fourth ship seized<\/a> since the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation in Caracas almost two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The latest seizure came as Venezuela\u2019s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez<\/a>, told parliament on Thursday that there would be reforms to legislation governing Venezuela\u2019s oil sector. The Hydrocarbons Law, among other provisions, limits the involvement of foreign entities in exploiting the country\u2019s national resources.<\/p>\n

Without providing details, Rodriguez told parliament the reforms would touch on Venezuela\u2019s so-called anti-blockade law, which provides the government with tools to counteract US sanctions in place since 2019.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said the envisioned legal reform would result in money for \u201cnew fields, to fields where there has never been investment, and to fields where there is no infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez also said funds from oil would go to workers and public services.<\/p>\n

Oil exports are Venezuela\u2019s main source of revenue.<\/p>\n

Since Maduro\u2019s abduction, Trump has claimed the US now controls Venezuela\u2019s oil sector and has made clear that the\u00a0takeover of the country\u2019s vast oil reserves<\/a> was a key goal of his military onslaught against the nation and its leader.<\/p>\n

Addressing oil executives last week, Trump said: \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with us directly and not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don\u2019t want you to deal with Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the US.<\/p>\n

But Venezuela only produced about 1 percent of the world\u2019s total crude output in 2024, according to OPEC, having been hampered by years of underinvestment, US sanctions and embargoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US forces say another Venezuela-linked tanker seized as Trump continues moves to take control of nation\u2019s oil reserves.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[32,3274,2597,12,37887,28137,285,49,978,286,659,8518],"class_list":{"0":"post-699059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-latin-america","10":"tag-military","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nicolas-maduro","13":"tag-oil-and-gas","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-us-canada","18":"tag-usa","19":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115902736242144153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}