Mike Steger examines President Trump’s historic Venezuela oil deal and why he believes it represents something far greater than access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
The agreement gives the United States access to 20% of Venezuela’s oil production at cost while the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital holds a 35% equity stake in North American Blue Energy Partners. Meanwhile, Venezuela could receive up to 45% of revenues through royalties and taxes, along with as much as $100 billion in new infrastructure investment.
Mike compares this arrangement with Britain’s 1901 oil concession in Persia. Britain secured access to nearly all of Iran’s oil for 60 years while Iran received only 16% of declared profits. Although critics call Trump’s deal another form of imperialism, Mike argues that its structure, purpose, and benefits are fundamentally different.
He then examines the failure of the postwar liberal system. The United States rebuilt Europe and Japan, opened its markets, and funded a worldwide military presence, only to see American manufacturing decline as globalization, corporate power, national debt, and neoliberal finance expanded.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative offers another model, but Mike argues that it adapts the same old imperial methods. Using Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port as an example, he examines how Chinese loans, long-term leases, manufacturing dominance, and transshipment networks advance China’s interests without creating genuine national development.
At the center of the discussion is the American System: sovereign nations cooperating on energy, infrastructure, industry, and scientific progress for their mutual benefit. Mike argues that Venezuela could become President Trump’s test case for replacing zero-growth globalization with a new era of industrial development.
Trump’s Venezuela strategy is therefore much bigger than oil. It could offer a model for rebuilding nations, strengthening American energy security, reviving domestic industry, and creating economic growth without British imperialism, neoliberal globalization, or communist control.
The agreement gives the United States access to 20% of Venezuela’s oil production at cost while the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital holds a 35% equity stake in North American Blue Energy Partners. Meanwhile, Venezuela could receive up to 45% of revenues through royalties and taxes, along with as much as $100 billion in new infrastructure investment.
Mike compares this arrangement with Britain’s 1901 oil concession in Persia. Britain secured access to nearly all of Iran’s oil for 60 years while Iran received only 16% of declared profits. Although critics call Trump’s deal another form of imperialism, Mike argues that its structure, purpose, and benefits are fundamentally different.
He then examines the failure of the postwar liberal system. The United States rebuilt Europe and Japan, opened its markets, and funded a worldwide military presence, only to see American manufacturing decline as globalization, corporate power, national debt, and neoliberal finance expanded.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative offers another model, but Mike argues that it adapts the same old imperial methods. Using Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port as an example, he examines how Chinese loans, long-term leases, manufacturing dominance, and transshipment networks advance China’s interests without creating genuine national development.
At the center of the discussion is the American System: sovereign nations cooperating on energy, infrastructure, industry, and scientific progress for their mutual benefit. Mike argues that Venezuela could become President Trump’s test case for replacing zero-growth globalization with a new era of industrial development.
Trump’s Venezuela strategy is therefore much bigger than oil. It could offer a model for rebuilding nations, strengthening American energy security, reviving domestic industry, and creating economic growth without British imperialism, neoliberal globalization, or communist control.