China squeezed out as US clamps down on Venezuelan crude

Washington: The Trump administration has sharply reduced China’s access to Venezuelan oil by enforcing sanctions, seizing tankers, and maintaining a US naval quarantine in the Caribbean.

The move could reshape global crude flows and intensify competition among major Asian importers, including India.

US officials say Venezuela’s oil exports can no longer move freely and that any shipment now requires explicit US approval. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington has effective control over when and how Venezuelan crude enters global markets.

“We have an oil embargo on Venezuela,” Rubio said in remarks reflected in administration transcripts. “For them to do any kind of commerce, they need our permission.”

That control, officials say, has cut off China’s access to discounted Venezuelan oil that Beijing had continued to buy despite years of US sanctions. Chinese companies had relied on sanctions-evasion networks, including opaque shipping and payment arrangements, to move crude out of Venezuela. Energy Department documents say US enforcement measures and a naval quarantine have now shut down unauthorised export routes.

Republican lawmakers have been explicit in linking China to those earlier flows. Sen. John Barrasso said Venezuela had become a key supplier for Beijing despite sanctions. “Communist China was buying half a million barrels of oil each and every day from Venezuela,” Barrasso said, arguing that those sales continued because sanctions were “never enforced.”

Barrasso said the situation has changed under the current administration. “President Trump has now begun to turn the tide,” he said, describing tighter enforcement as a blow to what he called a sanctions-defying network involving China, Russia and Iran.

Sen. John Cornyn echoed that view, describing Venezuela as part of an “Axis of Evasion” used by US adversaries to bypass pressure. “Venezuela was playing a very important role in what they call the Axis of Evasion,” Cornyn said in Senate remarks.

Administration documents back up those claims, saying unauthorised exports are no longer being tolerated. The Energy Department said a naval quarantine remains in force on sanctioned Venezuelan oil and that only US-approved, supervised sales are permitted.

Sen. Eric Schmitt said the impact on China is already clear. “That naval quarantine still exists on currently sanctioned oil,” Schmitt said in a television interview included in the documents. “China can’t get it through shadow fleets right now.”

India and China are two of the world’s largest oil importers and often compete directly for supply, particularly for heavy crude grades suited to complex refineries. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves and, before US sanctions in 2019, was a major supplier to Indian refiners.

Democrats, however, question whether the administration is effectively taking control of another country’s energy sector.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the administration’s objectives appear to have shifted “from drugs to regime change to controlling a country and its oil.”

IANS