When and what property of the United States did Venezuela steal
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Executive summary
There is no authoritative record that Venezuela "stole" property belonging to the United States as a sovereign act; instead the clearest, documented confrontations over property involve Venezuela’s 2007 expropriation of assets owned by U.S. oil companies and more recent U.S. seizures of Venezuelan-linked vessels and cargo that Caracas calls theft (Forbes on the 2007 nationalizations [1]; U.S. government and press reporting on the 2025 tanker seizure [2] [3]).
1. The 2007 nationalizations: what was taken from U.S. companies and when
In 2007 Hugo Chávez’s government carried out a sweeping nationalization of foreign-operated oil projects, seizing stakes in ventures run by U.S. companies including ConocoPhillips — most prominently its interests in the Petrozuata, Hamaca and Corocoro projects — an action widely documented as expropriation of foreign (including U.S.) corporate assets at that time (Forbes recounting the 2007 seizures and ConocoPhillips’ losses) [1].
2. Legal aftermath: arbitration awards, non‑payment and enforcement
Those expropriations spawned years of arbitration and litigation; recent reporting notes arbitration rulings upheld as of January 2025 totaling roughly $8.7 billion plus interest that Venezuela has refused to pay, prompting U.S. authorities to authorize enforcement actions by ConocoPhillips against Venezuelan assets abroad (Forbes on the upheld awards and enforcement authorization) [1].
3. What the contemporary reporting calls “theft”: the seized tanker and oil cargo
In December 2025 U.S. forces seized a very large crude carrier, identified in U.S. filings as the M/T Skipper, after obtaining a U.S. warrant that alleges the vessel formed part of a sanctions‑evading network moving Venezuelan (and allegedly Iranian) oil; U.S. officials framed the operation as lawful seizure of assets tied to terrorism‑related and sanctions violations, while Venezuela and allied states denounced it as “theft” or “piracy” (Justice Department unsealing the warrant and legal basis [2]; reporting on Venezuelan and Cuban denunciations and U.S. statements [3] [4]).
4. International‑law and political disputes over who “stole” what
Legal scholars and international observers dispute the reach of U.S. jurisdiction for boarding and seizing merchant shipping on the high seas and emphasize flag‑state rights under UNCLOS; accounts differ on whether the Skipper was seized in Venezuela’s territorial sea or in international waters, and whether the U.S. legal claims under U.S. statutes fully satisfy international law exceptions — a debate that feeds both U.S. assertions of law enforcement and Venezuelan claims of theft (analysis of international‑law issues and uncertainty about seizure location) [5].
5. Bottom line: theft claims are politically charged and depend on perspective
Factually, reporting supports two distinct sets of events that people invoke when saying Venezuela “stole” U.S. property: one is Venezuela’s 2007 expropriation of assets owned by U.S. oil firms (a state nationalization of private company property) and the other is Caracas’ allegation that recent U.S. seizures — notably the Skipper and its cargo — amount to theft of Venezuelan state property; contemporary sources document the 2007 expropriations and subsequent arbitration awards [1] and also document the U.S. seizure and the competing characterizations of that act [2] [3] [6], but do not support an uncontested finding that Venezuela has stolen property that legally belonged to the United States as a sovereign.