It’s always been about oil, ever since Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s.

When the Spanish explorers set foot in a place now called Venezuela they noticed that the natives were using a tarry substance, it seemed to be everywhere. Today, it’s known as heavy crude oil.

By 1928, U.S. oil companies had surpassed the operations of European oil companies in Venezuela. Despite a lot of naysayers claiming that nobody wants to control Venezuela’s expensive to refine heavy crude oil, the oil refineries in the United States were developed specifically to handle that type of oil. The Second World War, followed by the sales boom of personal automobiles in the U.S., drove the U.S. even deeper into developing the world’s largest heavy crude oil reserves, in Venezuela.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) oil map of Venezuela, dated May 1947 (note that this is several months before the official creation of the CIA).

C-SPAN has a promotional film about Creole Petroleum Corporation, showing the history of its development in Venezuela and what it argues are the many benefits to the oil-rich country, such as health care, education, and infrastructure: Click here to view People and Petroleum, the Story of Creole in Venezuela.

Oil & gas operations in Venezuela, as of 1954.

In 1950, Venezuela was the fourth most prosperous country in the world, with an average income of about $7-thousand-5-hundred with only Switzerland, New Zealand, and the U.S. doing better. Owned by Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) at the time, Creole dissolved when Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in the 1970s.

The United Kingdom’s Sky News explainer, posted on 11DEC2025, showing that the U.S. is after Venezuela’s heavy crude oil, then at the very end of report hints that Russia is next: