The Trump administration has dramatically escalated its campaign against Venezuela’s oil exports, seizing a fifth sanctioned tanker in just weeks as U.S. forces tighten a worldwide blockade on Venezuelan crude. In a pre-dawn operation near Trinidad, U.S. Marines and sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear, supported by the Department of Homeland Security, boarded the tanker Olina and took control of the vessel without resistance, U.S. Southern Command confirmed. The seizure marks a decisive step in Washington’s strategy to dominate the flow of Venezuelan oil and reshape global energy markets.
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Background
Since the January 3 capture of Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has framed control of Venezuela’s hydrocarbon sector as both an economic engine and a geopolitical weapon. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but decades of socialist mismanagement left the infrastructure in ruins. Trump has signaled that American energy firms will soon be invited to restore production and stabilize markets — under U.S. supervision.
The Evidence
According to U.S. officials and maritime intelligence, the Olina had been falsely flying the flag of Timor-Leste and was previously sanctioned under the name Minerva M for operating within Venezuela’s “shadow fleet.” The tanker departed Venezuela fully loaded last week as part of a flotilla of more than a dozen vessels attempting to bypass the new U.S. blockade.
U.S. forces launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and intercepted the vessel in the Caribbean Sea. Its AIS tracking system had gone dark 52 days earlier in the Venezuelan EEZ — a classic evasion tactic.
Earlier this week the tanker M Sophia was also seized. Three more vessels — Skylyn, Min Hang, and Merope — have turned back toward Venezuelan waters, while seven additional fully loaded tankers remain under surveillance. All cargo is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday: “The U.S. blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil remains in full effect anywhere in the world.”
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Expert Analysis
This is no longer a sanctions campaign — it is a global maritime enforcement operation. Washington is effectively asserting control over Venezuela’s oil exports on every ocean, creating a new model of economic warfare that fuses naval power with financial pressure.
Russia, China, and multiple European states have protested the seizures as violations of international law, but the Trump administration is unmoved. The message is unmistakable: energy dominance now equals geopolitical dominance.
Prophetic Context
Scripture warns that control of trade and resources becomes a central lever of power in the last days. “The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo anymore” (Revelation 18:11, NASB 1977). As shipping lanes, commodities, and national wealth fall under tighter control, the architecture of global commerce is being rewritten before our eyes.
Strategic Implications
By cutting off Venezuelan oil, Washington is simultaneously:
• Starving hostile networks of revenue
• Forcing China and Russia into deeper dependency on each other
• Reasserting U.S. naval supremacy in global energy corridors
• Restructuring the Western Hemisphere’s energy order
This is not simply about Venezuela. It is about who governs the future flow of energy — and therefore the future of global power.
Conclusion
The seizure of the Olina confirms that Trump’s second term is ushering in a new doctrine: control the energy, control the world. As tanker after tanker falls under U.S. authority, the balance of economic power is shifting — and the world is rapidly approaching a point where markets, nations, and alliances will be reshaped by force of will rather than diplomacy.
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