Venezuela live updates: U.S. vows to control Venezuela’s oil ‘indefinitely’ as UK helps Trump seize two tankers

British RAF spy planes and submarine hunters circled above as US special forces boarded an empty Russian-flagged Venezuelan oil tanker in the north Atlantic in an expensive performance verging on satire.

The Marinera was chased across the oceans, switched its nationality to Russian mid-journey, painted Moscow’s flag on its side and chugged along shadowed by one of Vladimir Putin’s submarines.

But the elite sailors beneath the sea offered the ageing tanker no real protection. And while the Kremlin has loudly condemned Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, the Marinera’s voyage did not end with nautical fisticuffs between two nuclear powers.

The seizure of the oil tanker Marinera and Britain’s role in it is an embarrassing farce, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley on the Venezuelan-Colombian border

Russia reportedly deployed a submarine and other naval assets to escort an empty, rusting oil tanker, which was later seized by the U.S.

The vessel, formerly known as Bella 1, has spent more than two weeks trying to evade a U.S. crackdown on sanctioned tankers near Venezuela.

It failed to dock and load oil, but despite being empty, the U.S. Coast Guard pursued it into the Atlantic as part of efforts to disrupt a shadow fleet that ferries illicit oil worldwide, including black-market crude sold by Russia.

Alarmed by U.S. seizures of tankers carrying its illicit oil, Russia made the unusual move of allowing the vessel to register without inspection or formalities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Moscow had asked Washington to stop pursuing the tanker, according to three U.S. officials. On Tuesday, the Russian foreign ministry said it was monitoring the situation “with concern,” according to state news agency RIA.

The weeks-long chase across the Atlantic ended on Wednesday morning when the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military special forces, bearing a judicial seizure warrant, apprehended the Marinera crude oil tanker.

U.S. forces have seized a sanctioned Venezuelan oil tanker being escorted by Russian naval ships in the North Atlantic, days after the dramatic capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

The military and Coast Guard intercepted the Marinera tanker on Wednesday in waters north west of Scotland, after a two-week chase.

The vessel had evaded a U.S. blockade of sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela, a measure the administration had implemented shortly before an elite unit seized Maduro in the early hours of Saturday.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from 66 organizations, agencies and commissions, marking the country further retreating from global cooperation.

The order follows Trump’s instruction for his administration to review participation in and funding for all international organisations, including those affiliated with the UN.

Most of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labour and other issues that this administration has categorised as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from organisations that foster cooperation among nations to address global challenges comes as his administration launched military efforts in Venezuela and issued threats to Greenland and other nations, which have rattled allies and adversaries alike.

U.S. president Donald Trump has abruptly changed his tone about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, saying that the two had exchanged a friendly phone call and that he’d invited the leader of the South American country to meet at the White House.

“It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the US military could be deployed in Venezuela to help protect oil workers sent there by American oil companies.

Asked about how the government could reassure the US oil companies that their workers would be safe, Leavitt confirmed that troops may be involved.

“The president, of course, reserves the right to use the military if necessary,” she said.

U.S. officials have claimed that the Trump administration needs to control Venezuela’s oil sales and revenue indefinitely to stabilize that country’s economy, rebuild its oil sector and ensure it acts in America’s interests.

The comments reflect the importance of crude oil to President Donald Trump’s strategy in Venezuela after U.S. forces ousted the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, in a raid on the capital Caracas on Saturday.

“We need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright said at the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech & Utilities Conference in Miami.

He said the revenues would be used to stabilize Venezuela’s economy and eventually to repay oil majors Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips for losses when their assets were nationalized by former President Hugo Chavez nearly two decades ago.

U.S. vice president JD Vance said that controlling Venezuela’s oil meant controlling the country.

“We control the energy resources, and we tell the regime: ‘You’re allowed to sell the oil so long as you serve America’s national interest; you’re not allowed to sell it if you can’t serve America’s national interest,” he told the Fox News.

The British army supported the US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic yesterday, the Ministry of Defence said.

The U.S. seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean, one sailing under Russia’s flag called the Marinera, as part of president Donald Trump’s aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas.

After capturing Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in a Saturday military raid on Caracas, the U.S. is escalating its blockade of vessels that are under sanctions and going to and from the South American country, a member of the OPEC oil producers group.

The UK MoD said the US asked Britain for assistance, and RAF surveillance aircraft and a Royal Navy support ship, the RFA Tideforce, took part in the operation.

Defence secretary John Healey said the action was “in full compliance with international law”, adding the UK “will not stand by as malign activity increases on the high seas”.

Oil producer Chevron is in talks with the U.S. government to expand a key license to operate in Venezuela so it can increase crude exports to its own refineries and sell to other buyers, according to a Reuters report.

The talks come as Washington and Caracas progress in talks to supply up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. and president Donald Trump presses American oil companies to invest in the South American country’s energy sector.

U.S. officials have said this week that proceeds from the Venezuelan oil supply, which is expected to help state energy company PDVSA drain inventories amid a severe oil blockade, will go to a U.S.-overseen trustee. Proceeds are meant to finance supplies of American goods to Venezuela.

Chevron is the only U.S. oil major operating in Venezuela, which it does under an authorization from the U.S. government that exempts it from sanctions on the country.

As part of its sanction-hardening campaign to weaken Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration in July put additional restrictions on Chevron’s license.

Those restrictions reduced the volume of Venezuelan crude the company is exporting to the U.S. to some 100,000 barrels per day in December from 250,000 bpd earlier this year.