The US military intervention in Venezuela and capture of president Nicolás Maduro has put the world’s largest oil reserves back on the global energy map. Switzerland’s oil traders are paying close attention. Since the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), in 2019 under Donald Trump, Swiss oil traders have had to comply or face measures. With few exceptions, business with the socialist country has effectively gone dry. But the US military abduction of president Nicolás Maduro last weekend, and statements by Trump of investments by the oil industry “to fix a badly broken infrastructure” in the sector now have traders seeking to decode what it all means for resuming business with the oil-rich nation. For energy traders clustered in the world’s biggest hub in Switzerland – mostly Geneva and Zug – the question is not whether Venezuela’s oil could matter again to global markets, but when and under what political and legal ...
