cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39534848
Jon Queally
Nov 26, 2025“What lies behind this,” said Petro, “is the same thing behind the war in Ukraine… petroleum,” noting the size and quality of Venezuela’s reserves. “In general, all of the wars of this century had to do with oil.”
If Trump were to get the upper hand, Petro suggested, the United States would get Venezuela’s oil “almost for free,” predicting that—“based on the evidence so far”—that the US will go to war over the resources.
Trump, said Petro, “is not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking,” adding that Venezuela is not considered a major drug producer or transit point for most narcotics headed to the United States.
Republicans are saying the same thing.
“Venezuela for the American oil companies will be a field day because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity.”
“American companies can go in and fix the oil rigs and everything that has to do with the Venezuelan petroleum companies, with oil and the derivatives.”
“The Venezuelans have the largest reserves of oil in the world, more than Saudi Arabia. This is going to be a windfall for us when it comes to fossil fuels.”
They’re just saying it out loud.
https://www.newsweek.com/gop-rep-says-us-may-go-in-to-venezuela-11102970
Ukraine isn’t about Oil though, it’s about control of fertile farmlands.
The regions Russia has invaded have large unexploited oil and more importantly gas reserves. Not only that, but some of the gas pipeline, which supply Russian gas to the EU run through that region. So if Ukraine holds them, it is fairly easy to them to replace Russian gas.
For the US the war is extremely usefull. Russia gave the EU a somewhat independent energy supply. But the war against Ukraine is just too dangerous. Especially with Russia threatening EU countries on a regular bases. So they turned to other suppliers and the biggest oil and gas exporter is currently the US. Due to the war a third of fossil gas used by the EU is from the US right now. That is a huge dependence.
As for oil, Ukraine is obviosuly very willing to attack Russian oil infrastructure. So the US is litterally taking out a competitor fairly long term here.
Something similar was happening with Iran. Israel actually attacked some oil and gas infrastructure in Iran as well. Obviously the entire region is always close to explode again.
This is also a good move against China. They import a lot of oil from Russia, Venezuela and Iran. So if the US can control Venezuela and take out Russia and Iran, then it is able to really punish China in a war. That is why China is going for EVs, renewables and coal. They can have those inside China. Something similar is happening inside the EU as well, but less strategic.
Also back to Ukraine. It is more complex then that. Ukraine is culturally close to Russia, so them removing a dictator might well be a bad example to the Russian people, from Putins point of view. It also acted as a buffer between Russia and EU/NATO, has a lot of farm land and due to Soviet legacy an economy, which integrates well into Russia, as well as a lot of Russian speakers. The war also helps Putin internally, as an excuse to strengthen the hold over the country and remove competition.
