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The Venezuelan oil market appears to be mostly reopened, just weeks after the U.S. military arrested Nicolas Maduro and essentially seized control of the world’s largest oil reserves.
Prior to Maduro’s capture, the U.S. military had placed a blockade on Venezuelan crude in December 2025, amid an increasing squeeze on the regime at the time.
Before the military operation just weeks ago, crude oil output in Venezuela fell drastically due to this blockade, before spiking again amid a 50-million-barrel deal with Washington, D.C., in mid-January, after Maduro was extracted, per Energy Now.
The president announced this deal shortly after Maduro’s arrest, and also said at that time that Venezuela had additionally gifted tens of millions of barrels of oil to the U.S. following the military operation that removed the previous regime.
The U.S. military has continued to seize oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea amid ongoing enforcement operations on a quarantine of Venezuelan vessels. Most recently, U.S. military forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, allegedly en route from the Caribbean Sea, and reportedly moving toward China.
Amid ongoing enforcement on the oil quarantine, a crude oil shipment from Venezuela is reportedly headed to Israel for the first time in several years, according to a report from Bloomberg.
This comes amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to travel to the United States this week for the seventh time since President Trump retook the White House just one year ago.
“On this trip we will discuss a series of issues: Gaza, the region, but of course first and foremost the negotiations with Iran,” the prime minister said in a translated statement on X.
As Israel stands ready to receive its first reported crude oil shipment from Venezuela, thanks to U.S. supervision of the region, America is also gearing up to develop the Venezuelan oil reserves.
President Trump unveiled his vision for the future of Venezuela’s energy supply, which includes a $100 billion collective investment from the world’s top oil companies, per RSBN.
“We’re going to be working with Venezuela, and we’re going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in, that we’re going to allow to go in,” the president said in January. “…We’re dealing with the country so we’re empowered to make that deal, and you’ll have total safety, total security.”