Flows of Venezuelan crude to the US have increased after the US seized its former president in early January, but not to the level of 80mn bl as US president Donald Trump claimed in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
"We just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80mn bl of oil," Trump said, adding he will continue "working closely with the new president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, to unleash extraordinary economic gains for both of our countries".
The US directly imported closer to 17.7mn bl, or roughly 300,000 b/d, of Venezuelan crude in January and February so far this year, according to Vortexa ship tracking data. This comes after the US military seized former president Nicolas Maduro in a violent raid on Caracas on 3 January. Rodriguez was Maduro's vice-president and most of his socialist collaborators remain in power.
Trump's 80mn bl figure would more closely correspond to US imports of Venezuelan crude in all of 2025 and so far in 2026. It would roughly correspond to Venezuela's total production since early December, of about 1mn b/d, when the US began seizing sanctioned crude tankers after a military build-up in the region. At least 8mn additional bl of Venezuelan crude still appear to be on the water in seized sanctioned tankers.
Rodriguez's government has asked the US to seize sanctioned tankers following Maduro's capture, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said. But Venezuelan crude flows out of Venezuela have increasingly been transported on mainstream tankers, rather than shadow fleet vessels.
The US has also been controlling most of Venezuela's crude sales since the 3 January raid, limiting sales to or through sanctioned countries.
Trump punctuated his speech with multiple references to the US raid in Venezuela, which led to dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security forces killed but no fatalities for the US. Some seven US soldiers were wounded, and Trump recognized with a Medal of Honor one helicopter pilot severely wounded during the attack.
Trump, speaking before Congress, also brought out a Venezuelan politician, Enrique Marquez, who had been freed in Rodriguez's recent prisoner releases. Marquez surprised his niece, who was a guest at the State of the Union address.
