CARACAS, VENEZUELA (Carlos A. Rossi, Energy Analytics Institute, 5.Mar.2025) — A crucial point behind Europe’s motivation to support Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenski is simply to not be left behind and ignored in any oil derivative deal certain to come out of any peace negotiation between the US and Russia.
Europe understands that US president Donald Trump is way too smart a negotiator to give Russia a freebie by pulling the rug under Zelenski’s feet for nothing.
Trump wants and needs the help of Vladimir Putin and China in securing a flow of petroleum to his country because oil is what empowers industrial and economic growth world wide.
That oil flow must come from the Middle East and Venezuela.
RELATED: Venezuela Activates Independence Plan After Sanctions Against Chevron
The trouble is that cheap oil is gone and what’s left is expensive, dirty, scarce and peaking. Meaning there is not enough oil for everybody in the quantities they want.
Europe is a very populated continent (some 450 million) accustomed to a high standard of living. Also, Europe imports 97% of the oil it consumes and has seen oil prices rise from around $21 per barrel in 1991 to around $70 per barrel today. Europe has suffered stagnant economic growth ever since the meltdown of 2008 and has not recovered to its pre-Covid gross domestic product (GDP) levels.
Europe’s fear of being left behind and in the dark while watching their economies collapse further is very real. Importantly, they will not stand for it.
The problems facing Europe are 2-fold. Several European countries have nuclear weapons, and World War Ill is a possibility if Europe maintains its anti-Russian and anti-US position, as Trump recently warned Zelenski during his short visit to The White House.
As such, it’s time for everybody to negotiate. Everybody being the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the US, Russia, Europe, China, Asia and even Africa.
____________________
By Carlos A. Rossi reporting from Caracas. © 2025 Energy Analytics Institute (EAI). All Rights Reserved.
Rossi, a diplomat’s son from Venezuela grew up in Washington, D.C. Rossi later worked for PDVSA and the AVHI. Rossi has published the following books: The Fall and Rise of Latin America (2000); Epilogue of Oil (2007); The Completion of the Oil Era: The Economic Impact (Energy Policies, Politics and Prices (2010).
Warning: Undefined array key 4 in /home/n2wdq81pm4m7/public_html/wp-content/plugins/insert-headers-and-footers/includes/class-wpcode-snippet-execute.php(419) : eval()'d code on line 40
