Trump administration broadens sanctions against Venezuelan oil interests

Four companies and four oil tankers are targeted in the latest attempt by Washington to slash the Maduro regime's key revenue source.

In the waning hours of 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury this week broadened its sanctions campaign against Venezuela, targeting four companies involved in the country’s oil trade and blacklisting four oil tankers that U.S. officials say help bankroll President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

This comes as the U.S. government attempts to physically block the tankers from leaving Venezuela, having seized two vessels off the Caribbean nation’s northern coast in recent weeks.

The latest sanctions, announced by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Wednesday, underscores Washington’s focus on disrupting what it describes as a growing “shadow fleet” of tankers used to move Venezuelan crude oil outside formal markets and evade existing sanctions to profit. Oil is the linchpin of the country’s economy, making up almost all of its export revenue.

Officials in the Trump administration argue this oil trade provides critical financial support to the Maduro regime, which the U.S. government deems illegitimate and closely tied to narcotics trafficking.

The newly sanctioned oil firms accused of operating in Venezuela — Aries Global Investment, Corniola Limited, Krape Myrtle, and Winky International Limited — will face asset freezes and won’t be able to conduct business with Americans. The Treasury Department’s move also effectively cuts off the firms’ tankers from the U.S. financial system and complicates their ability to operate internationally.

The move builds on earlier actions against Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., which was sanctioned in 2019, as well as more recent penalties imposed last month on PDVSA-linked officials, companies and vessels.

U.S. officials say the latest designations are meant to send a clear signal to traders, shipowners and financiers that involvement in Venezuela’s oil trade carries mounting legal and financial risk.

“President Trump has been clear: We will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from exporting oil while it floods the United States with deadly drugs,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Treasury Department will continue to implement President Trump’s campaign of pressure on Maduro’s regime.”