Catenaa, Thursday, January 01, 2026- The Trump administration stepped up a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s oil exports by sanctioning companies based in Hong Kong and mainland China.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Wednesday added four companies with links to Venezuela’s oil industry, Zhejiang-based Corniola and Hong Kong-based Aries Global Investment, Krape Myrtle, and Winky International, to its specially designated nationals and blocked persons list.
It also sanctioned four vessels connected with those firms: Della, Nord Star, Rosalind, and Valiant.
The US already has a list of vessels and companies under sanction for their connections to Venezuela’s oil trade. But targeting Chinese firms doing business there is rare, and could be a signal to Beijing to steer clear of the stand-off between the Trump administration and the regime of Nicolás Maduro.
China is Venezuela’s biggest customer for oil exports, which represent about 95% of Venezuela’s revenue.
“These vessels, some of which are part of the shadow fleet serving Venezuela, continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s illegitimate narco-terrorist regime,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
“Maduro’s regime increasingly depends on a shadow fleet of worldwide vessels to facilitate sanctionable activity, including sanctions evasion, and to generate revenue for its destabilizing operations,” it added.
Of the vessels identified by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, only one has been anywhere close to Venezuela lately, according to ship-tracking data, the Rosalind, which typically is involved in short-haul trips known as cabotage.
The sanctions represent the latest move in President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Maduro over alleged drug trafficking operations.
On Tuesday, the Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and firms based in Iran and Venezuela over their alleged involvement in weapons trading.
US forces have intercepted two carriers in recent weeks. A third turned away from Venezuela and retreated to the Atlantic Ocean after it was pursued by US forces.
