Pressure Systems edition
Venezuelan Oil Deals and Shadow Tanker Fleets
September 6, 2026
What this edition shows
The Trump administration's extraction of Venezuelan crude and exploitation of Gulf insecurity expose a neo-imperial pivot where sovereign resources are seized as leverage. Meanwhile, shadow tanker fleets operating across rogue jurisdictions and opaque multi-billion-dollar energy accords bypass traditional international law to sustain extraction and geopolitical volatility.
Reporting and analysis behind this edition 10 sources
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Venezuelans Aren’t Happy With the U.S. Oil Deal
Critics have decried the opaque agreement as oligarchic and colonialist.
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A Gold Rush in Venezuela?
The curious case of a job posting and how global firms are tentatively exploring Trump's call to pursue mining opportunities.
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Inside the booming ‘shadow fleet’ industry keeping rogue states afloat
It’s the middle of the night in April 2023 in the East China Sea. A North Korean-linked oil tanker sailing under another country’s flag suddenly goes dark. It stops transmitting its location using the Automatic Identification System (AIS) machine that all large commercial ships have on board. It sim…
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The Vicious Cycle Trump May Restart
By the time he retired from the Marine Corps, in 1931, Major General Smedley Butler had served in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and China. It was the golden age of American imperialism, and Butler was one of its golden boys, among the most decorat…
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Trump Meant It Literally When He Said He Was Taking the Oil
“We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground,” Donald Trump said when he announced the capture of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. And lo and behold, it has come to pass. Trump announced last week that he had made a deal with Venezuela to develop it…
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How Gulf insecurity fuels US energy dominance
The no-war, no-peace status quo with Iran increasingly benefits the US, its energy sector and its ally Israel.
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Oil and politics: What Trump’s ‘historic’ deal means for Venezuela
Venezuelans are hoping for free and fair elections, but the US may prioritise oil production.
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Why are people calling Venezuela oil deal a new form of US colonialism?
Critics call the US multi-billion-dollar oil deal in Venezuela modern-day colonialism.
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How Trumpism is changing the world
This US presidency is rewriting the rules of global governance and ushering the world into a new era.
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The US is gobbling up Venezuelan oil, but will it lower fuel prices?
Analysts say Venezuelan crude is hard to extract and refine, and likely can't replace oil stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.