The volume of Venezuelan crude floating at sea has spiked to the highest level in more than three years after the US seized the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and asserted control over its energy resources. More than 29 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are now on vessels stationary at sea, up from about 20 million barrels earlier this week, according to data from Kpler. Most of the increase has been seen in waters in Asia, where China has long been the largest importer of the South American nation’s output. “Chinese teapots are already bracing for the possibility that the barrels now in transit will be their last,” said Muyu Xu, a senior crude analyst at Kpler, referring to independent Chinese processors. The oil market has been rocked this week by the US intervention into OPEC member Venezuela, which sits on the world’s largest proven crude reserves. The Trump administration has said it plans to control future sales of Venezuelan oil and hold the proceeds, with the new arrangement to last “indefinitely,” according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright. It has also maintained a naval blockade on flows, although US-bound cargoes have been allowed. The upheaval has cast doubt on where the Venezuelan oil that’s now in transit or floating storage will end up. Still, Wright also said Washington would not prevent China from accessing Venezuelan oil, according to comments to Fox News. “We’re not going to cut off China,” he said. “The illicit trade in oil with Iran and Russia, the illegal gun-running stuff, that’s going to be cut off.” WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Oil notched its longest streak of weekly gains since June as Iran intensified a crackdown on protests across the country and US President Donald Trump threatened repercussions if demonstrators were targeted. West Texas Intermediate futures settled near $59 a barrel after rising more than 5% over the prior two sessions. Tehran said that “rioters” who damage public property or clash with security forces will face the death penalty, just a day after the US president warned the country’s regime would “pay hell” if protesters were killed. The unrest is the most significant challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since a nationwide uprising in 2022. Protests are disrupting air travel in and out of the country, which produces more than 3 million barrels a day of crude. The scale of risk shows up clearest in options markets, where the skew toward bullish calls is the biggest for US crude futures since July. The Iranian turmoil shifted the focus away from Venezuela, where Trump said further attacks were canceled, citing improved cooperation from the country, leading to a brief dip in oil prices earlier. An energy quarantine is still in effect, though, and the US continues to have its military in position for further action in the region after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last week. Trump met with oil executives at the White House on Friday and said the US intends to decide which companies will be allowed to go into Venezuela. “We’re dealing with the country, so we’re empowered to make that deal,” he said, adding that “giant” oil companies will spend $100 billion of their own money in investment. Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, for her part, issued a statement Friday saying the country is a victim of an “illegitimate and illegal criminal aggression” by the

Russia’s crude oil production plunged by the most in 18 months in December, pincered by western sanctions that are causing the nation’s barrels to pile up at sea and a surge of Ukrainian drone attacks on its energy infrastructure. The nation pumped an average 9.326 million barrels a day of crude oil last month, according to people with knowledge of government data, who asked not to be identified discussing classified information. The figure — which doesn’t include output of condensate — is more than 100,000 barrels a day below November, and almost 250,000 barrels a day lower than Russia is allowed to pump under agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies. The slump comes at a time when Ukraine has been carrying out wide ranging drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure — directly curbing output and affecting refineries that consume the barrels. At the same time, Russian cargoes are amassing at sea amid signs of reticence among some buyers to take them following sweeping US sanctions targeting the nation’s two largest producers, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC. Russia’s Energy Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment on the December crude production figures. It’s a public holiday in Russia. The December decline was also the deepest since June 2024 — a period when Russia was supposed to be cutting its production anyway under an agreement with OPEC+. The producer group agreed to return barrels to the market between April and December 2025, and then hold output steady in the first quarter of 2026.  Until December, Russia’s output had been rising, even if growth had been petering out before year end. Russia’s required level of production for the final month of 2025 was 9.574 million barrels a day, according to OPEC data. Historically, Russia had been a laggard in complying with

The Trump administration is unlikely to provide financial support to help US oil companies revitalize Venezuela’s oil sector, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Friday, throwing cold water on hopes the multibillion-dollar effort would be subsidized by the US government.  “The capital is going to come from the capital markets and come from the energy companies,” Burgum, who also leads the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, told Bloomberg Television. “I don’t see that these companies are going to need support from the US, other than things around security. If we can provide a secure, stable environment, the resource here is so significant and so large that it’s going to be attractive for people to go in and develop.”  Burgum’s remarks come after President Donald Trump previously suggested the effort, estimated to cost upwards of $100 billion over the next decade, could be reimbursed by the US. The president on Monday told NBC News “a tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.” Oil companies, which are set to meet with Trump, Burgum and other administration officials at the White House later Friday, have been wary of committing tens of billions of dollars to Venezuela over the next decade. Executives have sought assurances on physical and financial security amid concerns about the stability of a post-Nicolás Maduro government.  Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Fox News Friday the US Export-Import Bank could be used to provide credit support.  “I have been deluged with companies interested to go to Venezuela, and so far, no one’s asked for money,” Wright said in response to a question about providing direct grants to oil firms. “What they want is the US to use our leverage to make

The Texas oil and natural gas industry employed 495,501 Texans last year, according to the Texas Oil & Gas Association’s (TXOGA) 2025 Energy and Economic Impact report, which was released this week. The sector that employed the most workers in 2025 was ‘support activities for oil and gas operations’, with 110,612 employees, followed by ‘gasoline stations with convenience stores’, with 81,268 employees, and ‘oil and gas pipeline and related structures construction’, with 50,667 employees, the report showed. ‘Crude petroleum extraction’ ranked as the oil and gas sector with the fourth most employees in 2025, with 49,187, and ‘oil and gas field machinery and equipment’ ranked fifth, with 29,280, the report revealed. TXOGA stated in the report that “every direct job in the Texas oil and natural gas industry creates approximately two additional jobs”, outlining that “1.4 million total jobs [were] supported across the Texas economy” in 2025. Texas oil and natural gas employers paid an average of $133,095 per job in 2025, according to the report, which noted that this was 68 percent more than the average paid by the rest of Texas’ private sector. The report showed that oil and gas taxes came in at $54,481 per employee last year, while “all other sector taxes” were $7,225 per employee. “Based on the combined state and local taxes and state royalties attributable to the industry, the oil and natural gas industry pays far more per employee than the average across all other Texas private-sector industries,” TXOGA stated in its report. According to TXOGA’s latest report, in 2025, the Texas oil and natural gas industry paid state and local taxes and state royalties totaling $27.0 billion. TXOGA pointed out in the report that this equates to nearly $74 million every day. A statement sent to Rigzone by the TXOGA team this

Nodal Exchange LLC, a derivatives trading platform for North American commodity markets, saw 3.1 billion megawatt hours (MWh) of power futures and 749,222 lots of environmental futures and options traded in 2025, achieving new annual highs. Power futures traded last year on the Tysons, Virginia-based exchange rose four percent year-on-year to 3.1 billion MWh. The December volume of 235 million MWh was up 29 percent from December 2024, Nodal said in an online statement Thursday. “Nodal continues to be the market leader in North American monthly power futures having 56 percent of the open interest with 1.51 billion MWh at the end of 2025”, Nodal said. “The open interest represents over $166 billion of notional value (both sides)”. Meanwhile environmental market open interest ended 2025 at a record 391,264 lots, up one percent from 2024. “December deliveries of 37,173 lots marked the fifth-largest delivery month for environmental products on Nodal”, Nodal said. “Renewable energy certificate futures and options posted volume of 465,189 lots in 2025, up 11 percent from a year earlier and ended the year with open interest of 323,591 lots, up 10 percent. “Nodal continues to expand environmental offerings having over 68 percent of the North American Renewable Energy Certificate market measured in clean MWh generation. “Nodal, in collaboration with IncubEx, launched several new environmental futures contracts in 2025, including Auction Clearing Price contracts for California, Washington and RGGI carbon allowances.  Nodal was the first exchange to launch PJM Emission Free Energy Certificate Futures, which allow for delivery of nuclear energy certificates alongside hydro. Other new launches included Virginia In-State Compliance REC Futures, New York Environmental Disclosure Program REC Futures and Alberta TIER EPC Options”. For natural gas, traded volumes last year totaled 958 trillion British thermal units (TBtu), Nodal said. Traded gas volumes in January-November 2025 reached a