Trump’s Venezuela oil seizure drives China toward Iranian crude, blunting US sanctions pressure & giving Iran an unexpected payday! Right, so Donald Trump invaded Venezuela, took control of the oil, largely seen as the only reason he did it, and by doing so shipments of Venezuelan oil to China have dropped. No surprises there, but China is still going to want oil from somewhere and in news that shouldn’t be much of a surprise either, Chinese refiners have responded to all of this by buying more Iranian crude instead. It’s cheaper, it’s already stored, it’s already available. You didn’t think yet more sanctions would actually stop any of that did you? The barrels that were meant to disappear from the Chinese horizon have simply changed flags and routes, which also removes the assumption that sanctions automatically squeeze the target and it le ...