Moving In The Right Direction

21 August 2026: Venezuela’s production and exports are recovering. On January 3rd of this year, Venezuelan president Maduro and his wife were captured by U.S. special forces in a predawn raid and flown to the United States to face criminal charges. Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former Vice President and Oil Minister, was officially sworn in as the interim president of Venezuela on January 5, 2026. The new government is actively cooperating with Washington. Under pressure from the U.S. government, Rodriquez quickly passed sweeping new energy legislation, reversing decades of strict state control and reopening the country to foreign investment. While the country’s oil industry faces enormous challenges due to decades of corruption, underinvestment and infrastructure decay, there has been some progress in Venezuela’s crude oil production and exports are starting to recover. In this Tanker Opinion, we’ll discuss what has been achieved so far, what still remains to be done and how the regime change impacted the tanker market. Please fill out the form to read the article.