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Now, let’s dig into two pieces of energy news from the past week.
Shangyou Nie
Editor, Well Read
Oil Prices Rise Slightly After Maduro Capture
Alejandro Perez Alvares/Shutterstock.com
The global oil market reacted mildly to the U.S. military's capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. Brent increased 1.6 percent to $61.75 per barrel on Monday, while WTI rose by 1.7 percent to $58.30 per barrel. Several oil and service companies’ stocks made steeper climbs, however. The world and the oil industry are anxious to see what will unfold in Venezuela in the near future.
The latest
In the courts:
On 5 January, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Maduro for narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine in a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
The Court issued an official indictment reading, “United States of America v. Nicolás Maduro Moros.” It lists five other co-defendants, including Maduro’s wife Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro.
The ousted Venezuelan leader pleaded “not guilty,” saying “I’m innocent,” and “I am still president of my country.”
The Trump Administration is working with Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s vice president under Maduro, rather than the opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado.
At its height, Venezuela produced 3.4 million barrels of oil per day in 1998, according to the annual Statistical Review of Energy published by the Energy Institute.
Many years of under-investment and oil sector mismanagement have led to significant production decline in Venezuela.
The latest EIA data shows that Venezuela produced 995,000 barrels of crude and condensate in August 2025.
An estimated 8 million people have left Venezuela since 2014, among them are skilled engineers and oil and gas professionals.
Chávez believed the move to nationalize Venezuela’s oil sector to be a victory over the United States, saying that “Venezuela will never be a North American colony.”
American: Chevron has had special permission from the Biden and Trump administrations to continue its operations in Venezuela.
It has 3,000 employees in Venezuela and produces about 250,000 barrels of oil per day there, according to the Financial Times.
European: Spain’s Repsol, Italy’s ENI, and France’s Maurel & Prom also continue to operate in Venezuela.
Chinese and Russian: CNPC and Russia’s Gazprom Neft have operations in Venezuela as well.
According to the WSJ, China is the largest importer of Venezuelan oil, receiving half to two-thirds of its crude production.
Chinese national oil companies’ share prices dipped on Monday: PetroChina dropped 3.5 percent, CNOOC 3.3 percent, and Sinopec 1.9 percent, according to the WSJ.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” said President Trump during a press conference last Saturday.
ConocoPhillips is “monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments,” said COP in a statement.
Looking ahead:
While Venezuelan heavy crude can still be sold on the open markets, rather than mostly shipped to China under the “oil for loan” arrangements, U.S. refineries along the Gulf Coast might see some immediate benefit, as they are fit to process Venezuelan heavy crude.
Under conducive political and economic conditions, Venezuela could become a major growth opportunity for the oil and gas industry in the future.
The United Kingdom-based company has become a leading producer in the Gulf of Mexico (America) and taken over operatorship for the Zama offshore field in Mexico.
Several billion-dollar deals and projects have been affected by legal issues in 2025, suggesting the oil and gas industry needs legal clarity and expertise.
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