Trump says U.S. has struck deal with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves
So if Trump gives a shit at all about America’s Maritime strength and industrial base how about reserving 50% of this Venezuelan crude imports to the US to be on ships flying the US flag? Don’t need to be US built to start but ultimately they should be built here as well.
This would create more new American maritime jobs than any of us have ever experienced in our professional lifetimes.
Which ships though? The US fleet only has 11 crude carriers; 4 ATC, 5 Polar. 2 Fairwater. All under charter already. Possible flag-in situation?
Who pay the additional cost?
If subsidised it will be the US taxpayers.
If not it will be US consumers, in the form of higer price at the pump.
How about applying the time honoured American principles;
It definitely should be a US flagged operation, but I’m just concerned there aren’t adequate number of ships. hopefully they will figure something out that can actually boost the American fleet a little bit.
sorry ombugge, the American working class people have been raped long enough by greedy politicians, private equity firms, and shady deals by American corporate oligarchs hiding behind those “principles” you described. God forbid we have some protectionism in place for our jobs.
Buy foreign built and reflag…US built is not required
Higher prices at the pump! What are we paying now? Using a US citizen crew would maybe add a nickel or two per barrel in transporting the crude.
I wish to FUCK you would stay out of this
US-flagged is not required either. Venezuela - USA v.v. is international trade, not under cabotage laws.
Present high pump price are NOT caused by foreign ships. You have to find something/somebody else to blame for that. 
Sorry, just trying to add some thoughts into this.
The idea of 50/50 shear of freight for imports/exports will never work.
Cross-traders have always been part of normal shipping and is enshrined in international agreements.
PS: USA has been the instigator behind many agreements, rules and regulations governing international trade these past 80 years.
Thankfully, until Venezuela becomes the 51st (52nd? 53rd?) state, the Jones Act won’t apply. Nothing keeps them from using entirely foreign ships, of course, but it really would be nice if we could get some modern VLCCs flagged in for some portion of the trade. Maybe @john will catch the President’s ear and make it happen?
Not that I’d want to crew one up, myself - I’ve hauled sour-ass Canadian tar sand crude which is comparable to the Orinoco crap being bragged about here, and I’m in no hurry to ever do so again.
Polar Tankers also has 5 crude tankers and Crowley at least 3.
It may be a while before there are any need for tankers to carry crude oil from Venezuela, whether US-flag or FOCs:
Besides; recently Venezuela’s oil production topped 1.23 million barrels per day, the highest level since February 2019.
Even peak production was only 3.0 - 3.5 mbpd. (late 1990s)
It will take a lot of investment and time to get back to that level.
You currently have no idea what we pay at the pump, apparently.
Gasoline is still relatively cheap in the US on a global basis, especially considering the higher average wage in the US.
Updates on gasoline prices in the US is published almost daily, both national average and for selective states.
The info is only a mouse click away for anybody anywhere, if specially interested: https://gasprices.aaa.com/
You would be hard put NOT to learn about it, since world media have regular updates, for those who are less interested.
It is not ONLY US that is affected by higher pump prices due to the present debacle in the Middle East, caused by you know who.
PS: In Europe the price of petrol is much higher than in the US:
In New Zealand all diesel for what ever purpose is taxed the same. It doesn’t matter whether your filling up your trawler, tractor or truck. The difference is the truck pays road tax that is paid in advance in 1000 km lots. The tax changes with weight and the number of axles. A tractor unit has a separate hubometer from a trailer. Vehicles under 3.5 tonnes use the odometer. Being a food exporting country diesel is vital and Trump’s adventure in the Middle East doubled the already expensive price of diesel because we are at the end of the supply chain. The price has dropped from a high of US $ 6.15 a gallon to $5.60
Venezuelan oil will get expensive when Venezuelans resent the theft of their oil by a colonial power and start an insurgency to drive us out.
At which point the USA will fund a dictator to keep the insurgency under control, chiefly with secret police operating by murder and torture. Billions of dollars to the dictator for ‘counter-terrorism’, most siphoned into his own pockets and that of his generals.
Eventually the insurgency will get big enough that American troops will need to be sent in, and they will become the targets of the insurgency.
So, things get expensive fast.
Remember all the money we would be making over Iraqi oil? We ended up, what? A trillion dollars in the hole over the Iraq war?
The level of Alzheimer’s in this country is shocking. Half the population can’t remember back just 20 years.
I notice none of the oil majors have made any announcement about imminent investment in this oil. I put this Trump announcement in the same category as his 40 big ice breakers and Iran’s military being 100% defeated announcements. So I’m not looking for any new tankers being needed any time soon.
“The agreements, which could be inked as early as this week, are separate from a massive Caracas-Washington pact announced last week for the U.S. to lock in a stake in 17 oilfields with some 64 billion barrels of proved reserves, a fifth of Venezuela’s total crude reserves.”
still no investments announced for that.
As usual in any Trump “deal”, the literal devil in the details turns out to include a cadre of, to be kind, shady characters. Might as well fill a big bowl with popcorn and take a seat because this scam is totally bingeworthy.
Here is one investor:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/us/politics/pentagon-venezuela-oil.html
The Defense Department’s Office of Strategic Capital, founded by the Biden administration to give loans to bolster the U.S. defense industry, is helping lead President Trump’s oil deal.
