by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief
(Worthy News) – The Trump administration is looking to Venezuelan oil and domestic production as the war with Iran strains global fuel supplies. Its most immediate test is diesel: the fuel that moves freight, runs farm equipment and helps determine what businesses pay to get goods to market.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration put the national average diesel price at $6.285 a gallon on September 14. Regular gasoline averaged $4.319. Those prices make the overseas supply crunch a domestic concern, even as the United States produces far more oil than it once did.
Venezuela offers supply, but no instant fix
The Treasury Department has authorized a wider range of Venezuelan oil transactions, while Venezuelan crude shipments to the United States have increased. Preliminary EIA data show imports of 782,000 barrels a day in the week ending September 11, up from 599,000 two weeks earlier. A rise in imports, however, does not establish how much relief drivers will see at the pump.
The administration is also pursuing changes to domestic development. In May, the Interior Department began a process to streamline permits for oil and gas infrastructure in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. That process is still a step toward future production, not fuel available today.
President Trump has urged Ukraine to stop striking Russian diesel infrastructure, arguing that the attacks are worsening the shortage. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine would consider halting strikes if Russia made a genuine commitment to stop attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, The Associated Press reported.
Russia is only part of the squeeze. The International Energy Agency’s September oil market report says Gulf diesel and gasoil exports in August were just over a quarter of their prewar level. Disruptions to Russian refining compounded those losses.
A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas analysis found that the U.S. economy is much less vulnerable to oil shocks than it was in 1980. That resilience matters, but it does not shield families or businesses from prices set in a strained global market.
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