The Trump administration is seeking the legal authority to seize the oil from the tanker that US forces boarded.

The United States has issued new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and on members of president Nicolás Maduro’s family, while taking steps to keep tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil from a large tanker that US forces seized off the country’s coast.

Venezuela’s economy depends on oil and has been hurt by US sanctions, leading Mr Maduro’s government to smuggle and sell crude through a web of tankers and middlemen. The new sanctions target three nephews of Mr Maduro’s wife and six shipping companies.

“There is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed,” Ms Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

And he reiterated past warnings about a greater escalation.

“It’s going to be starting on land pretty soon,” he said of strikes in Venezuela.

The US government’s actions this week most likely will reduce the number of tankers that are willing to load oil in Venezuela, further isolating a country that depends heavily on the revenue it receives from exporting the fossil fuel. But there was little immediate effect on oil prices, which remained around $58 (€49) a barrel in the United States. The market is unfazed because Venezuela produces little oil, less than 1 per cent of what the world uses.

New details emerged Thursday about the seized oil tanker, including about its crew, which is mainly from Russia, according to a US official, who was not authorised to speak publicly. US authorities have asked the crew to sail the Skipper to the United States, but they have another crew on standby if needed, the official said.

The tanker has a capacity of two million barrels. It was loaded nearly full at a Venezuelan port about a month ago, according to data collected by Kpler, a company that monitors global oil shipping. The value of the oil carried by the Skipper amounted to roughly $78 million, said Francisco Rodríguez, an economist at the University of Denver.

The ship may have recently tried to hide its location and disguise its activities, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and photographs, reflecting the shadowy world of smuggling in which it is said to operate.

Despite the legal basis for the seizure relating to Iran, US officials have made clear that their actions were designed to pressure Venezuela and that they could seize more tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in the future.

Among the moves by the Trump administration to squeeze Venezuela are the sanctions announced Thursday.

Two of the Maduro nephews who were put under sanctions were arrested in Haiti in 2015 as they were finalising a deal to transport a shipment of cocaine to the United States. The men, whom the treasury department referred to as “narco-nephews,” were convicted in 2016 on drug trafficking charges but were granted clemency in 2022 by former president Joe Biden and returned to Venezuela, where, according to the treasury department, they continued trafficking drugs.

The sanctions also hit Venezuela’s economy by blacklisting six shipping companies – Myra Marine Ltd Arctic Voyager Inc, Poweroy Investment Ltd, Ready Great Ltd, Sino Marine Services Ltd and Full Happy Ltd – that have vessels transporting Venezuelan oil.

The targeted ships were “blocked” by the Treasury Department, impeding them from doing international business, although it was not clear if the US planned to seize them.

The Irish Times report