A Venezuelan navy patrol boat escorts Panamanian flagged crude oil tanker Yoselin near the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela on November 11, 2025. The United States on January 7, 2026, seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic after pursuing it from off the coast of Venezuela, in an operation condemned by Moscow. After the operation, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted that the US blockade on Venezuelan oil was in full effect "anywhere in the world."