Chevron shipments keep Venezuelan crude arriving, despite sanctions and bluster.
US and Venezuela posture at sea, tankers still sail.
Future depends on licenses, insurance, and any misstep at sea.
Venezuelan militia on parade, by Cancillería del Ecuador, Creative Commons.
Venezuelan crude is still reaching US ports despite sanctions and a US
naval buildup. The oil flows today. Tomorrow is a question mark.
Oil Moves While Rhetoric Spikes
Everyone is pretending it isn’t happening, but oil is still moving from
Venezuela to the United States in the middle of a diplomatic knife fight.
Business Today flagged the issue, citing
energy analyst Anas Alhajji: “Today, we have tankers arriving from
Venezuela delivering oil to the United States despite the sanctions.” The point
was delivered with a side of realpolitik. The trade is happening. The rules are
a moving target.
The Chevron Carve-Out in Action
What keeps the flow alive is not magic. It is licensing. In July, the
US Treasury reportedly issued
a restricted license to Chevron that allowed operations and exports from
Venezuela to resume after a pause. Two Chevron-chartered tankers, Mediterranean
Voyager and Canopus Voyager, loaded Boscan and Hamaca crudes and reached US
waters. That
is not rumor. It is shipping threaded through a sanctions maze that
Washington built, then partially unlocked for one company.
Double Standards or Just Another Friday?
Alhajji did not hold back on the optics. He pointed out that tankers are
arriving from Venezuela while Washington publicly punishes some buyers and
quietly creates exceptions, even as Europe
keeps importing Russian gas and LNG. He also noted, “The US still imports
uranium from Russia. No one is saying anything about it.” You do not have to
agree with the framing to recognize the punchline. Energy policy often reads
like a choose-your-own-principles adventure.
Caracas to the Pentagon: Not Today
Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, by Palácio do Planalto, Creative Commons.
Across the water, the mood is not calm. Al Jazeera quotes President
Nicolás Maduro telling troops, “There’s
no way they can enter Venezuela,” while vowing the country is ready to
defend its sovereignty as US warships arrive to run an anti-cartel operation in
the Southern Caribbean. Maduro’s line was not subtle, and it was not meant to
be. It was domestic theatre and strategic messaging in the same breath.
An Armada, an Echo
Seven US warships and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine are in or
heading to the region. More than 4,500 US service members are aboard, including
about 2,200 Marines. Those are not rhetorical devices. They are hulls, engines,
and payrolls. Caracas has answered with its own show of force, sending warships
and drones to patrol the coast and urging militia recruitment. None of that
turns valves, but all of it raises the risk that politics, not geology, decides
where barrels go next.
Maduro’s government has also deployed 15,000 troops to the border with
Colombia to confront drug-trafficking groups. You can read that as
law-and-order theater or border security. Either way, it adds to the sense of a
tightening perimeter around an oil trade that is simultaneously open and
precarious.
Today’s Barrels, Tomorrow’s Question Mark
Put the pieces together. On the one hand, the market has a functioning
channel. Chevron’s shipments show that sanctioned energy can still thread the
needle if the paperwork aligns. On the other hand, the military temperature is
rising, and leaders are getting a little hot under the collar. Oil companies do
not like uncertainty. Traders like it even less. One policy memo in Washington
or one incident at sea could flip the script from carve-outs to clampdown in a
day. That is the part nobody can model.
What to Watch Next
Watch the license terms. If the restricted license that enabled
Chevron’s movements is narrowed, the flow tightens. If it is extended, barrels
keep crossing the Gulf. Watch the choreography at sea. More ships, closer
passes, or a hot mic could spook insurers and charterers faster than any press
conference. And listen for fewer speeches and more customs stamps. In this
story, the most honest sentences are on bills of lading.
For more stories from the edges of business and finance, visit our Trending pages.
Venezuelan crude is still reaching US ports despite sanctions and a US
naval buildup. The oil flows today. Tomorrow is a question mark.
Oil Moves While Rhetoric Spikes
Everyone is pretending it isn’t happening, but oil is still moving from
Venezuela to the United States in the middle of a diplomatic knife fight.
Business Today flagged the issue, citing
energy analyst Anas Alhajji: “Today, we have tankers arriving from
Venezuela delivering oil to the United States despite the sanctions.” The point
was delivered with a side of realpolitik. The trade is happening. The rules are
a moving target.
The Chevron Carve-Out in Action
What keeps the flow alive is not magic. It is licensing. In July, the
US Treasury reportedly issued
a restricted license to Chevron that allowed operations and exports from
Venezuela to resume after a pause. Two Chevron-chartered tankers, Mediterranean
Voyager and Canopus Voyager, loaded Boscan and Hamaca crudes and reached US
waters. That
is not rumor. It is shipping threaded through a sanctions maze that
Washington built, then partially unlocked for one company.
Double Standards or Just Another Friday?
Alhajji did not hold back on the optics. He pointed out that tankers are
arriving from Venezuela while Washington publicly punishes some buyers and
quietly creates exceptions, even as Europe
keeps importing Russian gas and LNG. He also noted, “The US still imports
uranium from Russia. No one is saying anything about it.” You do not have to
agree with the framing to recognize the punchline. Energy policy often reads
like a choose-your-own-principles adventure.
Caracas to the Pentagon: Not Today
Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, by Palácio do Planalto, Creative Commons.
Across the water, the mood is not calm. Al Jazeera quotes President
Nicolás Maduro telling troops, “There’s
no way they can enter Venezuela,” while vowing the country is ready to
defend its sovereignty as US warships arrive to run an anti-cartel operation in
the Southern Caribbean. Maduro’s line was not subtle, and it was not meant to
be. It was domestic theatre and strategic messaging in the same breath.
An Armada, an Echo
Seven US warships and a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine are in or
heading to the region. More than 4,500 US service members are aboard, including
about 2,200 Marines. Those are not rhetorical devices. They are hulls, engines,
and payrolls. Caracas has answered with its own show of force, sending warships
and drones to patrol the coast and urging militia recruitment. None of that
turns valves, but all of it raises the risk that politics, not geology, decides
where barrels go next.
Maduro’s government has also deployed 15,000 troops to the border with
Colombia to confront drug-trafficking groups. You can read that as
law-and-order theater or border security. Either way, it adds to the sense of a
tightening perimeter around an oil trade that is simultaneously open and
precarious.
Today’s Barrels, Tomorrow’s Question Mark
Put the pieces together. On the one hand, the market has a functioning
channel. Chevron’s shipments show that sanctioned energy can still thread the
needle if the paperwork aligns. On the other hand, the military temperature is
rising, and leaders are getting a little hot under the collar. Oil companies do
not like uncertainty. Traders like it even less. One policy memo in Washington
or one incident at sea could flip the script from carve-outs to clampdown in a
day. That is the part nobody can model.
What to Watch Next
Watch the license terms. If the restricted license that enabled
Chevron’s movements is narrowed, the flow tightens. If it is extended, barrels
keep crossing the Gulf. Watch the choreography at sea. More ships, closer
passes, or a hot mic could spook insurers and charterers faster than any press
conference. And listen for fewer speeches and more customs stamps. In this
story, the most honest sentences are on bills of lading.
For more stories from the edges of business and finance, visit our Trending pages.
Louis Parks has lived and worked in and around the Middle East for much of his professional career. He writes about the meeting of the tech and finance worlds.
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How FYNXT is Transforming Brokerages with Modular Tech | Executive Interview with Stephen Miles
How FYNXT is Transforming Brokerages with Modular Tech | Executive Interview with Stephen Miles
Join us for an exclusive interview with Stephen Miles, Chief Revenue Officer at FYNXT, recorded live at FMLS:25. In this conversation, Stephen breaks down how modular brokerage technology is driving growth, retention, and efficiency across the brokerage industry.
Learn how FYNXT's unified yet modular platform is giving brokers a competitive edge—powering faster onboarding, increased trading volumes, and dramatically improved IB performance.
🔑 What You'll Learn in This Video:
- The biggest challenges brokerages face going into 2026
- Why FYNXT’s modular platform is outperforming in-house builds
- How automation is transforming IB channels
- The real ROI: 11x LTV increases and reduced acquisition costs
👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.
#FYNXT #StephenMiles #FMLS2025 #BrokerageTechnology #ModularTech #FintechInterview #DigitalTransformation #FinancialMarkets #CROInterview #FintechInnovation #TradingTechnology #IndependentBrokers #FinanceLeaders
Join us for an exclusive interview with Stephen Miles, Chief Revenue Officer at FYNXT, recorded live at FMLS:25. In this conversation, Stephen breaks down how modular brokerage technology is driving growth, retention, and efficiency across the brokerage industry.
Learn how FYNXT's unified yet modular platform is giving brokers a competitive edge—powering faster onboarding, increased trading volumes, and dramatically improved IB performance.
🔑 What You'll Learn in This Video:
- The biggest challenges brokerages face going into 2026
- Why FYNXT’s modular platform is outperforming in-house builds
- How automation is transforming IB channels
- The real ROI: 11x LTV increases and reduced acquisition costs
👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.
#FYNXT #StephenMiles #FMLS2025 #BrokerageTechnology #ModularTech #FintechInterview #DigitalTransformation #FinancialMarkets #CROInterview #FintechInnovation #TradingTechnology #IndependentBrokers #FinanceLeaders
Executive Interview | Charlotte Bullock | Chief Product Officer, Bank of London | FMLS:25
Executive Interview | Charlotte Bullock | Chief Product Officer, Bank of London | FMLS:25
In this interview, we sat down with Charlotte Bullock, Head of Product at The Bank of London, previously at SAP and now shaping product at one of the sector’s most ambitious new banking players.
Charlotte reflects on the Summit so far and talks about the culture inside fintech banks today. We look at the pressures that come with scaling, and how firms can hold onto the nimble approach that made them stand out early on.
We also cover the state of payments ahead of her appearance on the payments roundtable: the blockages financial firms face, the areas that still need fixing, and what a realistic solution looks like in 2026.
In this interview, we sat down with Charlotte Bullock, Head of Product at The Bank of London, previously at SAP and now shaping product at one of the sector’s most ambitious new banking players.
Charlotte reflects on the Summit so far and talks about the culture inside fintech banks today. We look at the pressures that come with scaling, and how firms can hold onto the nimble approach that made them stand out early on.
We also cover the state of payments ahead of her appearance on the payments roundtable: the blockages financial firms face, the areas that still need fixing, and what a realistic solution looks like in 2026.
In this conversation, we sit down with Drew Niv, CSO at ATFX Connect and one of the most influential figures in modern FX.
We speak about market structure, the institutional view on liquidity, and the sharp rise of prop trading, a sector Drew has been commenting on in recent months. Drew explains why he once dismissed prop trading, why his view changed, and what he now thinks the model means for brokers, clients and risk managers.
We explore subscription-fee dependency, the high reneging rate, and the long-term challenge: how brokers can build a more stable and honest version of the model. Drew also talks about the traffic advantage standalone prop firms have built and why brokers may still win in the long run if they take the right approach.
In this conversation, we sit down with Drew Niv, CSO at ATFX Connect and one of the most influential figures in modern FX.
We speak about market structure, the institutional view on liquidity, and the sharp rise of prop trading, a sector Drew has been commenting on in recent months. Drew explains why he once dismissed prop trading, why his view changed, and what he now thinks the model means for brokers, clients and risk managers.
We explore subscription-fee dependency, the high reneging rate, and the long-term challenge: how brokers can build a more stable and honest version of the model. Drew also talks about the traffic advantage standalone prop firms have built and why brokers may still win in the long run if they take the right approach.
Executive Interview | Remonda Z. Kirketerp Møller| CEO & Founder Muinmos | FMLS:25
Executive Interview | Remonda Z. Kirketerp Møller| CEO & Founder Muinmos | FMLS:25
In this interview, Remonda Z. Kirketerp Møller, founder of Muinmos, breaks down the state of AI in regtech and what responsible adoption really looks like for brokers. We talk about rising fragmentation, the pressures around compliance accuracy, and why most firms are still in the early stages of AI maturity.
Ramanda also shares insights on regulator sandboxes, shifting expectations around accountability, and the current reality of MiCA licensing and passporting in Europe.
A concise look at where compliance, onboarding, and AI-driven processes are heading next.
In this interview, Remonda Z. Kirketerp Møller, founder of Muinmos, breaks down the state of AI in regtech and what responsible adoption really looks like for brokers. We talk about rising fragmentation, the pressures around compliance accuracy, and why most firms are still in the early stages of AI maturity.
Ramanda also shares insights on regulator sandboxes, shifting expectations around accountability, and the current reality of MiCA licensing and passporting in Europe.
A concise look at where compliance, onboarding, and AI-driven processes are heading next.
In this conversation, we speak with Aydin Bonabi, CEO and co-founder of Surveill, a firm focused on fraud detection and AI-driven compliance tools for financial institutions.
We start with Aydin’s view of the Summit and the challenges brokers face as fraud tactics grow more complex. He explains how firms can stay ahead through real-time signals, data patterns, and early-stage detection.
We also talk about AI training and why compliance teams often struggle to keep models accurate, fair, and aligned with regulatory expectations. Aydin breaks down what “good” AI training looks like inside a financial environment, including the importance of clean data, domain expertise, and human oversight.
He closes with a clear message: fraud is scaling, and so must the tools that stop it.
In this conversation, we speak with Aydin Bonabi, CEO and co-founder of Surveill, a firm focused on fraud detection and AI-driven compliance tools for financial institutions.
We start with Aydin’s view of the Summit and the challenges brokers face as fraud tactics grow more complex. He explains how firms can stay ahead through real-time signals, data patterns, and early-stage detection.
We also talk about AI training and why compliance teams often struggle to keep models accurate, fair, and aligned with regulatory expectations. Aydin breaks down what “good” AI training looks like inside a financial environment, including the importance of clean data, domain expertise, and human oversight.
He closes with a clear message: fraud is scaling, and so must the tools that stop it.
