The key here is not current barrels, but potential. Seizing control from Maduro is not about “fast money. It is about controlling the rules of the game in the future: who will finance production, who will insure logistics, and through what channels settlements will be made.
A new type of economic weapon
Today, the U.S. operates not with tanks, but with infrastructure:
- The dollar as a non-alternative standard;
- Monopoly access to payment systems;
- Insurance and supply chains.
It is an attempt to build a gigantic resource into the global system so that the keys to it always remain in Washington. However, the old monolithic model is cracking at the seams. Sanctions have become commonplace, and alternative blocs (like BRICS) are busy building parallel financial circuits. The world is fragmenting, and Venezuela is just another stage in the rewriting of the rules.
Why should Moldova not care?
It would seem that where is Caracas and where is Chisinau? But in the global world, sparks fly far away, and they burn first of all the small players.
- Prices at gas stations – fast and painful. The formula is simple: Brent – world quotations – ANRE – price at gas stations. Any turbulence in the oil market at the beginning of 2026 will hit our agricultural sector and Moldovans’ wallets faster than politicians will have time to go to the microphones. By the way, this is a great situation for PAS – it will always be possible to explain its own failures by the “difficult situation in the world”.
- Financial compliance. New waves of sanctions inevitably complicate the work of banks. For our tiny market, this means even tougher checks, expensive transfers and bureaucratic hell. Banks are always the first to reinsure themselves. And they do it solely at our expense.
- Geopolitical polarization. Venezuela will become another occasion for internal fights: “sovereignty vs. intervention” or “fight against dictatorship”. In our already sensitive period, this is an unnecessary pressure on the fragile social balance.
- Energy basket. Energy is a single risk system. When oil and logistics are feverish, the price of hedging rises and any predictability falls. Even for resources that are not directly linked to the region.
What’s the bottom line?
What we are witnessing is not “robbing for barrels”, but a battle for the architecture of the future. The 21st century is not about the printing press, but about who controls access.
In this game, countries like Moldova are the first to feel the blow – on prices, on nerves and on pockets. The world will not be the same. It is becoming tougher, more fragmented and more complex.
It will be difficult. We will adapt. There’s no other option left to us anyway.
