The U.S. global order has long rested on oil being traded in dollars. From the Nixon era through the 1970s, Washington secured key producers (not least Saudi Arabia) to price oil only in USD, creating the “petrodollar” system that anchors American financial power. This system lies at the heart of modern petrodollar oil politics, shaping how energy, currency and global influence interact. Historically, when major oil producers have tried to move away from dollar-denominated oil sales, the United States has responded with strong economic or political retaliation. Saddam Hussein’s decision to sell oil in euros came shortly before the Iraq War, while Muammar Gaddafi’s push for a gold-backed African currency was followed by NATO’s 2011 intervention — connections often cited by critics of the petrodollar system. Today that pattern appears again in Venezuela, Iran and even the Arctic island of Greenland.
Venezuela in petrodollar oil politics
By the 2010s the Maduro government was openly pivoting its oil sales towards China and other partners. In January 2019, the Trump administration slapped harsh sanctions on Venezuela’s PDVSA oil company on the day of Maduro’s re‑inauguration. These measures cut off all dollar revenue. U.S. officials and experts agree that ending the old “oil-for-debt” swaps precipitated Venezuela’s economic collapse. Within months U.S. sanctions effectively barred PDVSA from foreign markets and blocked even the diluent needed for heavy crude, collapsing production. By early 2020 oil output had fallen by 75%, just a fraction of its former level, and Venezuelans were fleeing a hyperinflationary crisis.
In January 2026, U.S. authorities announced that Nicolás Maduro had been taken into U.S. custody in a covert operation and transferred to New York to face drug-trafficking charges, a move Washington described as a law-enforcement action rather than a conventional military intervention. what critics described as the largest U.S.-led regime-change operation since Iraq in 2003. Americans themselves took to the streets to protest. Times Square filled with “No blood for oil” placards as crowds denounced “an illegal war” and said the White House was misusing taxpayer dollars.
Analysts quickly noted that Chávez and Maduro had been escaping the dollar system. By the mid-2020s Venezuela “had increasingly accepted yuan and other currencies for crude” and was aligning with the China-Russia-led BRICS bloc, a shift that fits within the wider framework of petrodollar oil politics.
In any case, the U.S. now exercises decisive control over how Venezuela’s remaining oil assets are accessed and traded internationally, but experts caution that military force alone won’t fully restore production. As one analyst put it, “The petrodollar is evolving, not collapsing, Venezuela alone cannot end it.”
Iran: Sanctions, proxies and alternate currencies
The U.S. even overthrew Iran’s Mossadegh government in 1953 after it nationalized oil, a coup aimed at keeping Iran’s oil and currency within Western control. After the 2016 JCPOA nuclear deal, Iran’s oil ministry told foreign partners that new contracts and overdue payments should be billed in euros instead of dollars. President Trump later tore up the nuclear deal in 2025 and re-imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports.
Despite the squeeze, Asian buyers continue to purchase most of Iran’s oil. The U.S. Intelligence Commission reported in 2025 that China now buys roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports. In effect, Beijing has become the lifeline of Tehran’s petroleum revenues. The U.S. sanctions have hurt Iran, but have not completely stifled its oil, they have simply rerouted it away from the West.
Iran’s future oil exports will continue to be a geopolitical lever and if a new U.S. administration in 2026 is again ready to “target” Iran’s oil, Tehran will likely deepen its ties with China and Russia to escape it.
Greenland: Rare earths and a strategic island
Greenland might seem far afield from oil wars, but the island has become a new prize in this global game. The United States has long treated Greenland as a strategic outpost. During World War II it took control of the island to block Nazi advances, and in 1951 it signed a defense pact that made Thule in northwest Greenland a key U.S. Air Force base.
White House cables from 1946 even show that Washington once offered $100 million to Denmark for the island. In 2019 President Trump floated the idea of “buying” Greenland again. After his 2024 re-election, he suggested that the United States might seek control of the island, a move Greenland’s government rejected by saying, “Greenland is ours, not for sale.”
Behind the political dispute lies strategic logic. As one U.S. admiral put it, “Whoever holds Greenland will hold the Arctic.” Control of Greenland gives the United States Arctic bases and access to the GIUK gap between Greenland, Iceland and the UK, which allows it to monitor Russian and Chinese activity.
A new energy order: Dollar, alliances and global competition
In all three cases, interventions come at a time of intensifying great-power competition. China and Russia benefit from U.S. sanctions on rivals. For example, Venezuela’s alliance with China and Russia now looks like a foretaste of a broader split. China agreed long-term oil-for-loan deals with Caracas, building a fleet of tankers that now can haul Venezuelan oil to Asia. In the new 2026 order “Venezuela has become a strategic outpost for rival powers”. Similarly, Iran’s ties to Beijing and Moscow deepen with each American measure. Both Caracas and Tehran have joined or aligned with BRICS, an economic bloc pushing for alternatives to the dollar. BRICS leaders have floated ideas of a new common currency for trade. So when Iran and Venezuela try to trade oil in yuan or euro, they are not just making a local deal, they are participating in a nascent anti-dollar bloc.
Yet despite all the talk of a “dollar collapse”, nothing dramatic has shifted yet. Within the broader context of petrodollar oil politics, when Venezuela or Iran move away from the dollar, the U.S. tends to double down on sanctions or pressure instead of giving way. It reflects a long-standing pattern in which Washington responds forcefully when oil trade begins to bypass the dollar.
Farwa Imtiaz is an independent researcher from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan, specializing in conflict analysis, South Asian geopolitics, and international relations, with a focus on regional security, state behavior, and international diplomacy.