As the recently published national security strategy emphasised, the new Trump administration is focused on maintaining control and influence in Latin America. The growing pressure that Washington is putting on Venezuela is just one example of this new foreign policy, and the seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast is just the latest development. With that in mind, it is useful to understand exactly how the country’s oil industry is caught up in this geopolitical power play. Since the United States introduced sanctions on Venezuelan…