White House Says US Planning to Keep Seized Venezuelan Tanker’s Oil
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that a ‘legal process will be followed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that the government will take a recently seized Venezuelan tanker back to a U.S. port and take its oil.
A day earlier, President Donald Trump and administration officials confirmed that an oil tanker was captured by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela. The vessel was accused of supporting foreign terrorist groups with connections to Iran, officials said.
“The United States does intend to seize the oil,” Leavitt said during a press conference in response to a question about whether the oil would be taken, adding that there is “a legal process for the seizure of the oil, and that legal process will be followed.”
The vessel is also currently undergoing what she described as a forfeiture process.
The ship will also be taken to a U.S. port and its crew will be interviewed as part of an ongoing investigation, she said, describing the vessel as a “sanctioned shadow vessel known for carrying black market, sanctioned oil to” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The move to seize the tanker marks an escalation in tensions between Washington and the Venezuelan government, after the Trump administration accused President Nicolas Maduro of using his country to ship illegal narcotics to the United States.
Since September, the U.S. military has carried out around two-dozen strikes on boats that have been accused of smuggling drugs into the country from Venezuela. The Trump administration has also placed sanctions on Maduro’s government, including more on Thursday.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that Maduro and accused “criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” he said.
Following the strikes, Trump said they were necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and that his administration is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Multiple Mexican and Venezuelan cartels or gangs have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations so far this year.
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the tanker seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy,” accusing Washington of seeking to overthrow the Maduro regime and obtain Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
“Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed … it has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Thursday that it wanted more information after the U.S. seizure of the ship, including about drug trafficking and maritime security.
“I really hope that the United States, although they consider themselves entitled to conduct such operations, will somehow explain, out of respect for other members of the world community, what facts led them to take such actions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during an embassy discussion on the Ukraine conflict, according to state-run news agency TASS.