, Columnist
Venezuelan Regime Change May Open Oil's Floodgates
The removal of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro could unlock a major source of oil for the world.
Photographer: Carolina Cabral/Getty Images South AmericaDespite sitting atop the world’s largest oil reserves, it’s a sad truth that Venezuela doesn’t matter for the energy markets. With production languishing near its lowest in a century, American saber-rattling against the administration of President Nicolás Maduro isn’t having much impact on oil; even an actual confrontation looks likely to only push prices a bit higher.
The opposite may even be true. It's a long shot, but a brief military campaign — perhaps echoing the US invasions of Grenada and Panama in 1983 and 1989 that triggered the collapse of the regime in Caracas — could go from bullish to bearish for the oil market rather quickly.