For the US oil major, this is about reclaiming its stake in a market it walked away from in 2007, after the Hugo Chávez government called for a fairer divvying up of profits.
For the US oil major, this is about reclaiming its stake in a market it walked away from in 2007, after the Hugo Chávez government called for a fairer divvying up of profits.
The US’ seizure last Wednesday of an Iranian oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil was definitive confirmation that the US’ war of aggression in Venezuela has nothing to do with drug cartels and everything to do with oil majors.
Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of heavy crude in the world, with an estimated 303 billion barrels, as well as the largest reserves of light crude oil in the Western Hemisphere. But it’s not just that Venezuela is home to the largest oil reserves on the planet, it’s that those reserves are sitting “right next door” to the US, as Trump himself said in 2023:
President Trump’s obsession with seizing other countries’ oil goes back a ways, to even before he entered politics. Here he is explaining in 2011 why the US should seize half or more of Libya’s oil after murdering its leader, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, and plunging what was arguably the richest country in Africa (on a per-capita basis) into total chaos.
The money quote: “you know the old days, when you had a war, it was ‘to the victor the spoils.’”
As has been patently clear since the very beginning, and was just reaffirmed by Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, Trump’s military strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific are entirely devoid of legal or national security justifications. Yet they continue.
Meanwhile, Julian Assange has filed a criminal complaint against the Nobel Foundation for allowing its peace prize to serve as an instrument of war. The Wikileaks founder alleges that giving the 2025 edition award to Maria Corina Machado constitutes misappropriation of funds and facilitation of war crimes.
Yet even as the holes in the whole war narrative grow larger, mainly because of Trump’s own conflicting statements, the war drums grow louder.
Now, Trump has said the quietest part out loud: his government is imposing a total siege on Venezuelan oil because the US wants “ITS” oil back from under Venezuela’s soil — the same oil that the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez dared to take back sovereign control of from foreign companies in 2005 (more on that shortly).
Trump’s blockade of all sanctioned tankers carrying Venezuelan oil does not affect Chevron’s daily shipments. From the Wall Street Journal:
President Trump on Tuesday ordered a complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela, escalating his administration’s pressure campaign against strongman Nicolás Maduro.
For Chevron, though, it remains business as usual. The company is still sending oil tankers to the U.S. Gulf Coast, its operations unimpeded thus far by rising tension between Trump and Maduro.
As Sony Thăng points out in the Tweet below, Trump’s candid declaration of US ownership of Venezuela’s is the “most honest colonial confession of the 21st century… you are saying, out loud, what empire has always believed in private: what lies under Venezuelan oil belongs to Washington.
Coming Full Circle
There are, of course, a plethora of other reasons for the US’ aggressive moves against Venezuela that we’ve discussed before, including the country’s large deposits of gold, rare earth minerals and freshwater; the opportunity to open up a mid-sized country’s market to rampant privatisation and liberalisation.
Caracas’ close ties with Russia, China, Iran and Cuba no doubt play a play, as does its long-standing opposition to Israel’s treatment of Palestine.
There’s also, of course, the small matter of the Epstein scandal, from which the Trump administration needs to distract its voters. And what better distraction than a new war, especially given the tens, perhaps even hundreds, of billions of dollars of new business it will create for the MIC?
But the main motive is — and always has been — the oil. And we’ve now come full circle, with Trump and members of his inner circle now openly admitting as much…
Nick Corbishley 