Venezuelan crude is still reaching US ports despite sanctions and a USnaval buildup. The oil flows today. Tomorrow is a question mark.Oil Moves While Rhetoric SpikesEveryone is pretending it isn’t happening, but oil is still moving fromVenezuela to the United States in the middle of a diplomatic knife fight.Business Today flagged the issue, citingenergy analyst Anas Alhajji: “Today, we have tankers arriving fromVenezuela delivering oil to the United States despite the sanctions.” The pointwas delivered with a side of realpolitik. The trade is happening. The rules area moving target. The Chevron Carve-Out in ActionWhat keeps the flow alive is not magic. It is licensing. In July, theUS Treasury reportedly issueda restricted license to Chevron that allowed operations and exports fromVenezuela to resume after a pause. Two Chevron-chartered tankers, MediterraneanVoyager and Canopus Voyager, loaded Boscan and Hamaca crudes and reached USwaters. Thatis not rumor. It is shipping threaded through a sanctions maze thatWashington built, then partially unlocked for one company.US warships are closing in on Venezuela "One of the reasons we have...given licenses to Chevron and a number of service companies...is to make it easier in the recovery of oil production..after the regime is replaced.”-Elliot Abrams on Venezuela🇻🇪 during the 1st Trump… pic.twitter.com/j5XtBYd66j— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) August 27, 2025Double Standards or Just Another Friday?Alhajji did not hold back on the optics. He pointed out that tankers arearriving from Venezuela while Washington publicly punishes some buyers andquietly creates exceptions, even as Europekeeps importing Russian gas and LNG. He also noted, “The US still importsuranium from Russia. No one is saying anything about it.” You do not have toagree with the framing to recognize the punchline. Energy policy often readslike a choose-your-own-principles adventure. Caracas to the Pentagon: Not TodayAcross the water, the mood is not calm. Al Jazeera quotes PresidentNicolás Maduro telling troops, “There’sno way they can enter Venezuela,” while vowing the country is ready todefend its sovereignty as US warships arrive to run an anti-cartel operation inthe Southern Caribbean. Maduro’s line was not subtle, and it was not meant tobe. It was domestic theatre and strategic messaging in the same breath.An Armada, an EchoSeven US warships and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine are in orheading to the region. More than 4,500 US service members are aboard, includingabout 2,200 Marines. Those are not rhetorical devices. They are hulls, engines,and payrolls. Caracas has answered with its own show of force, sending warshipsand drones to patrol the coast and urging militia recruitment. None of thatturns valves, but all of it raises the risk that politics, not geology, decideswhere barrels go next."Venezuela🇻🇪....we would have taken it over. We would have gotten all that oil."-Donald TrumpThe US now is sending warships to the coast of Venezuela under the guise of ‘countering drug trafficking’ https://t.co/x7muS1CsvN pic.twitter.com/rqpvIjUFp3— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) August 27, 2025Maduro’s government has also deployed 15,000 troops to the border withColombia to confront drug-trafficking groups. You can read that aslaw-and-order theater or border security. Either way, it adds to the sense of atightening perimeter around an oil trade that is simultaneously open andprecarious. Today’s Barrels, Tomorrow’s Question MarkPut the pieces together. On the one hand, the market has a functioningchannel. Chevron’s shipments show that sanctioned energy can still thread theneedle if the paperwork aligns. On the other hand, the military temperature isrising, and leaders are getting a little hot under the collar. Oil companies donot like uncertainty. Traders like it even less. One policy memo in Washingtonor one incident at sea could flip the script from carve-outs to clampdown in aday. That is the part nobody can model.What to Watch NextWatch the license terms. If the restricted license that enabledChevron’s movements is narrowed, the flow tightens. If it is extended, barrelskeep crossing the Gulf. Watch the choreography at sea. More ships, closerpasses, or a hot mic could spook insurers and charterers faster than any pressconference. And listen for fewer speeches and more customs stamps. In thisstory, the most honest sentences are on bills of lading.For more stories from the edges of business and finance, visit our Trending pages.This article was written by Louis Parks at www.financemagnates.com.