Keeping Venezuela's oil

Keeping Venezuela’s oil

Jan 11, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – To some observers, the US strategy in Venezuela is one that slips and slides, seemingly not knowing what the end game is. Nothing could be further from the truth, because regardless of how much the US slips and slides with Venezuela, it always is sliding closer and closer to the oil. It is a massive tub of oil, a bottomless one that has thinned the juices in President Donald Trump, and gets him going. The politician in him sees the angles, while the businessman sees green, as in a huge boost to the economic fortunes of the US. He could be both over-calculating and over eager, if not over his head, in that there is every impression that he has not fully thought through this Venezuelan adventure that could get out of hand in a snap.

Without a doubt, that pool of Venezuelan oil has been eating away at the brain of the US at the highest levels. Midas was so captivated by gold that he lost his head, and never recovered. From Homer, Helen of Troy made another man lose his heart, and for which 10,000 ships sailed to make matters right. To some destiny, the 300 billion barrels of heavy crude in the Orinoco Basin suck in US visions and could capsize them. Never one to hedge, President Trump was only too glad to provide confirmation of US intentions.

“In 2016, I said we should have kept the oil. It caused a lot of controversy. Well, we should have kept the oil… And we are going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time we are going to keep the oil” (as recalled by the Morning Joe host of MS Now, Joe Scarborough). Long experience has taught hard lessons. It is better to adopt a wait-and-see outlook than put credence in his every statement and end up chasing shadows. However, there are some hard realities that the US has to confront, and there is no one better at doing so than Donald Trump. It is unmoving reality that the economic and military juggernauts of the world’s leading superpower have to be kept lubricated, and the main lubricant is oil. Like oil corporations, countries must also be on the hunt for new oil, and the latest from Trump is that agreement has been reached for 30-50 million barrels from Venezuela, which recognizes US domestic conditions.

The Permian Basin in the American Southwest has been an extraordinary bonanza for the US, but it has been slowing down in recent times, with the emphasis being on stretching the remaining oil assets to maximize remaining value. The Bakken Field in North Dakota and Montana is a producer, but does not rank as a field with superstar status. Also, from a US perspective, Middle East oil is best thought of in terms of a love-hate relationship. The economics and good times were great for many decades, but in the last 50 years, the negatives have included fractured relationships, wars, and great divisions.

From a Trumpian standpoint, why go halfway around the world, when the largest oil known oil reserves are right in this hemisphere, in the US backyard, figuratively speaking. There can be no better deal than that for someone of Trump’s mindset, and Maduro has proven just as troublesome as his mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez. In the worldview of Trump, all the oil that the US needs is right here, and there is the added benefit of knocking Maduro and his socialist friends out of the picture. Given that US military assets have been deployed in the Caribbean Sea and elsewhere in the region, it could be that he is recovering US expenditure by first committing to keeping Venezuela’s oil, then collecting that 30-50 million barrels as an instalment. Only someone who thinks like Donald Trump could search for justification of his actions, which are dubious at best, and outright robbery, to look at critically.

It is unclear how long the US will continue “to keep this oil”, and keep what gives every indication of blood oil (30-50M barrels) flowing. This can be couched or rationalized several ways. Regardless how pitched, it is still ransom by another name.

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