By Peter Koenig
Global Research
December 23, 2025
On 20 December 2025, the US Coast Guard seized a second oil tanker off Venezuela's coast, carrying Venezuelan crude destined for China, as part of President Trump's intensified blockade against sanctioned vessels. At least five people have died in this new act of piracy.
This followed the first seizure earlier in the month and aligns with Trump's order for a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela.
President Trump propagates indeed wanting to choke-off Venezuela by blocking all ways in and out of Venezuela, meaning no more food and other vital products can get into the country, from which trump wants to steal its natural resources, foremost hydrocarbons - of which by far the largest reserves worldwide can still be found in Venezuela's grounds, some 303 billion "proven" barrels, about 15% more than Saudi Arabia. "Proven" in this sense is a flexible term because it refers to "economically exploitable" resources.
However, the 303 billion barrels do not include between 900 and 1,400 billion barrels of heavy crude in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt (Eastern Venezuela), of which about half are "technically recoverable." This term means "economically exploitable" and is always linked to the crude's market price as well as the available technology to exploit it.
Altogether, Venezuela counts with about 1,600 billion barrels of crude, about double the 836 billion barrels of the entire Middle East.
In the past five years, Russian Rosneft investments have almost tripled Venezuela's output from 540,000 barrels per day (bpd), with Russia having recently signed a 15 years extension of investments until 2041.
In addition, China is Venezuela's top oil buyer with 55-90% of Venezuela's monthly oil exports.
It is hard to believe that these close allies of Venezuela would just stand by and watch when Trump invades Venezuela à la boots on the ground, as he threatens to do.
Both Russia and China are nuclear powers. This does not mean they might start a nuclear war over Venezuela. But they have highly sophisticated tactical nuclear weapons. They could be targeted on specific strategic sites in the US mainland - or in the Caribbean or elsewhere of US interests.
Venezuela has already announced that any tanker leaving the ports of Venezuela would be flanked by Venezuelan navy ships. So, a surprise helicopter-orchestrated US takeover of a tanker, like the one about a week ago, would no longer be possible.
It seems that strategy has failed, when a second oil vessel was struck and captured yesterday by the US Coast Guard.
Would Trump dare to attack a Venezuelan oil tanker with bombs, submarines, or missiles ? Knowing that the Russian and Chinese navies are nearby?
These allies would most likely also assist with food deliveries to the Venezuelan people, despite Trump's promise that a tight sea and air control would impede Venezuela from importing and / or exporting anything.
Let us not forget, Trump in his geographic wisdom has already boasted of surrounding Venezuela from all sides with US navy warships. A glance at the map will assure any doubter that Venezuela faces only in the North the sea, the Caribbean Sea, that is.
See also this. In a riveting 4-minute video clip announcement of Venezuela's "We are Rising in Rebellion", a high-ranking Venezuelan military officer explains the reasons why Venezuela will not succumb to US aggression and blackmail.
See this 4-min video clip - Spanish with English subtitles.
bitchute.comYet, the fight is not over and more innocent people may have to die until someone intervenes to stop Trump in his murderous attempt to steal the world's largest energy resources.
The original source of this article is Global Research.
Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion - An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney's book "When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis" (Clarity Press - November 1, 2020).