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donald trump has ordered Sanctioned “complete and total” blockade of oil tankers From Venezuela As part of the ongoing pressure campaign against the President Nicolas Maduro’s government,
Hundreds of US troops and ships are deployed off the coast of Venezuela, where US forces were deployed last week An oil tanker seized in the latest attempt To cause economic damage to Caracas.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump claimed that Venezuela is “completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” warning that “it will only get bigger.”
He demanded that Venezuela “return to the United States all the oil, land and other assets that they previously stole from us.”
Caracas described Trump’s announcement as a “grotesque threat.”
How big are Venezuela’s oil reserves?
Venezuela controls the world’s largest known oil reserves, producing about 1 million barrels per day.
Its oil reserves are mainly found in the Orinoco Belt, an area in the east of the country covering approximately 55,000 square km.
The country’s proven reserves are estimated at more than 303 billion barrels, the largest reserves worldwide – surpassing Saudi Arabia’s 297.7 billion barrels.
Venezuela’s crude oil reserves are six times larger than those of the US, amounting to 46 billion barrels by 2023.
In 2009, the United States Geological Survey estimated that the Orinoco Belt alone contained 900 to 1,400 billion barrels. Of this, between 380 and 652 billion barrels were recoverable, it said.
The belt contains heavy crude oil, which is harder and more expensive to extract than conventional oil. Advanced technology is required to produce usable oil from this field.
Why doesn’t Venezuela export more oil?
Despite its natural resources, Venezuela’s exports were only worth $4.05 billion in 2023, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. This is a fraction of the $122bn exported by Russia and $181bn by Saudi Arabia in the same year.
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA sells most of its exports at deep discounts to China’s black market – as the country has been locked out of global oil markets due to US sanctions imposed by Trump.
Since the US imposed its first energy sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, traders and refiners buying oil from Venezuela have resorted to using “shadow fleets” of older tankers that hide their location. The ownership of these vessels is often unclear, and they operate without standard insurance. Many have been approved to transport oil to Russia or Iran.
As of last week, more than 30 of the 80 ships in Venezuelan waters or en route to the country were under U.S. sanctions, according to data compiled by TankerTrackers.com.
Last week America stopped a ship named captain Off the Venezuelan coast – first time Washington Venezuelan oil cargoes have been seized since the sanctions were imposed.
Where is oil exported and what routes are used?
Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston, said about 850,000 of the 1 million barrels produced per day are exported. About 80 percent of that oil goes to China, 15 to 17 percent goes to the US, and the rest goes to Cuba.
Venezuelan oil is loaded at port terminals on its northern Caribbean coast, such as Puerto José.
without usa blockadeVenezuelan ships have direct access to the Atlantic Ocean, meaning they can travel as far as South Africa, then cross the Indian Ocean to China.
US-bound tankers will head north through the Caribbean Sea to the Gulf of Mexico before being offloaded at US Gulf Coast ports including Pascagoula (Mississippi), St. Charles (Louisiana) and Freeport (Texas).
Although the Trump administration has said captain Headed for Cuba, analysts believe it was probably destined for China given its sheer size. This 20 year old ship can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.
Why does Trump want to stop oil exports?
The Trump administration has been escalating tensions with Venezuela in recent months, with growing signs that the US president is pushing for regime change.
The US military has recently carried out a series of military attacks on Venezuelan boats in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, claiming – without any evidence – that they were carrying drugs to the US.
However, Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wills suggested in an interview that ousting Maduro was also an objective of Trump’s. Vanity Fair,
“Trump wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro screams uncle,” Wills said.
The amount of crude oil Venezuela is able to export to the United States has significantly decreased.
Regime change in Venezuela, in favor of a president more aligned with U.S. interests, would provide Washington with increased access to Venezuelan crude, which is cheaper than crude from other countries because of its dense, sticky nature.
This could allow major US oil companies including Chevron – which already produces oil in Venezuela – to expand their operations in the country. This will help America reduce its dependence on oil from the Middle East and Russia.
It would also be a strategic victory on the geopolitical stage, as Maduro is currently in alliance with several of America’s adversaries, including China, Iran, and Russia.