Trump Says US Will Keep Oil, Tankers Seized off Coast of Venezuela

‘Maybe we’ll sell it. ... Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves,’ the president said.

Published: 12/23/2025, 8:41:21 PM EST

Trump Says US Will Keep Oil, Tankers Seized off Coast of Venezuela — President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Dec. 22, 2025. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump on Dec. 22 said that the United States will keep or sell the oil from tankers it seized off the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks.

Asked what he planned to do with the oil, Trump told reporters: "We're going to keep it. We're keeping it."

"Maybe we’ll sell it, maybe we’ll keep it, maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves," he said during a press conference after announcing plans for a new fleet of large warships. "We’re keeping the ships also."

The comments follow seizures of vessels and the oil they were carrying while sailing through waters off the coast of Venezuela. Trump has declared Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s regime a foreign terrorist organization.

On Dec. 10, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, seized the first vessel. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed at the time that the seizure warrant was executed for the crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

Bondi said in a post on X, "For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations."

Over the weekend, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a second oil tanker that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was last docked in Venezuela.

Noem said in a post on X on Dec. 20: “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you.”

Trump then confirmed on Dec. 22 at the press conference in Mar-a-Lago that the United States is pursuing a third tanker.

"It's moving along, and we'll end up getting it," he said of the tanker.

US Blockade

On Dec. 16, Trump said he would impose a blockade off the coast of Venezuela to prevent any sanctioned oil tankers from entering or leaving the South American country.

“The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

"Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”

The Maduro regime previously described the United States’ seizure of the tanker filled with Venezuelan crude oil as “international piracy.”

“The true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have been laid bare,” Yván Gil Pinto, Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister, said in a Dec. 11 statement.

“It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Dec. 11 news briefing that the United States was "not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world.”

T.J. Muscaro and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times