What energy security really means
Some interpret energy security simply as producing more oil. For others it is tied to renewables, protection from Russia, a larger strategic reserve, or less dependence on the Middle East.
The term is politically charged. The Trump administration uses it to justify a much closer energy relationship with Venezuela. OFAC and the White House say that entering Venezuela forms part of U.S. national security in the hemisphere.
Security does not mean self-sufficiency
The United States produces large quantities of oil. It is not only a net exporter; it also sells every type of refined product. And yet it imports millions of barrels every day. That sounds like a contradiction, but it really is not.
Oil is not a single interchangeable commodity. A light barrel of shale produced in Texas does not have the same properties as Venezuelan heavy crude. And not all refineries are the same.
A large part of the U.S. Gulf Coast infrastructure was built to process heavy crude with a higher sulfur content. Today it has more than 1.6 million barrels per day of coking capacity. This is precisely the kind of infrastructure that can convert difficult crudes into higher-value fuels.
That is why the United States can export light crude while also importing heavy crude.
Energy security does not mean eliminating imports. It means having reliable access to the energy molecules the system actually needs.
Canada explains part of the story
Canada has been the backbone of U.S. external supply for years. The two countries built an integrated system of fields, pipelines and refineries. There is no clearly defined energy border between Alberta and the Midwest. What exists instead is a network that acts as one energy system. And that is part of what energy security means.
This logic helps explain why Washington is now turning toward Venezuela. Not to replace Canada, exactly. It simply needs another option.
This is where part of the political conversation tends to oversimplify reality. Venezuela is not going to make the United States truly independent. Nor does it need to replace Canada. What it can do is add redundancy. Venezuela holds large volumes of heavy crude relatively close to the refineries best prepared to process it.
Hemispheric energy security does not depend on its producers competing against one another. It depends on not having to rely desperately on just one of them.
The Strait of Hormuz
Geography usually goes unnoticed until a particular route stops working.
During the crisis with Iran, commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz declined. The risk to exports brought a major geopolitical variable back into oil and fuel transport.
That example helps explain energy security more clearly. A barrel traveling from Venezuela to Texas does not have to pass through Hormuz. Neither does a cargo of molecules sent from Canada, Brazil or Guyana.
That does not mean the continent is insulated. Oil is traded globally. A crisis in the Middle East can raise prices in Houston even if the United States does not lose a single barrel.
Available supply within the hemisphere reduces part of the risk. It does not eliminate it.
The Americas are becoming a more important exporting system
This has not all revolved around Venezuela.
The United States, Canada, Brazil, Guyana and Argentina have increased the continent's importance within global trade. Regional exports reached record levels in 2026. Nearly 30% of all seaborne crude traded worldwide now comes from the region.
For decades, much of the energy-security debate centered on a question: how can the West protect itself from dependence on the Middle East?
Now it increasingly revolves around another: what part of the energy system can be developed around the hemisphere?
That does not mean the United States will abandon global trade.
It means that Canada, the United States, Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Trinidad and the Caribbean are beginning to matter more as a network than as separate energy stories.
The Caribbean gains relevance
Trinidad and Tobago now has gas infrastructure that gives this part of the hemisphere strategic weight. Venezuelan gas developments on the Deltana Platform connect directly to that part of the region. BP has just authorized the development of Loran with XRG and UCC, while Shell develops Manatee on Trinidad's side. They are different fields, but they form part of the same offshore geological and commercial system.
That is why hemispheric energy security does not mean only Venezuelan oil shipped to Texas. It also means Venezuelan gas feeding infrastructure in Trinidad. U.S. LNG going to global markets. Brazilian or Guyanese crude entering international trading systems. And enough electricity for the fields, ports and plants themselves to operate independently.
A strategic reserve cannot accept just any barrel
The recent discussion around the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, offers a clear example of why energy does not work well as a political abstraction.
The current administration wants to link Venezuelan oil to the agreement so that it contributes to the reserve. The problem is that Venezuelan crude is too heavy and sulfurous for the reserve's operating specifications. Wright's proposed solution is a swap: deliver Venezuelan heavy crude to the refining system and receive U.S. crude that can be stored in return.
That detail reveals part of the dynamic. Having the right oil, in the right place, connected to the right infrastructure makes all the difference. It belongs inside the definition of energy security.
Electricity counts too
Venezuela helps illustrate this.
Oil production can increase and new contracts can be signed. But pumps need electricity. So do upgraders. The same applies to terminals, refineries and facility-control systems.
The agreement with GE Vernova has that objective: stabilize part of the existing electricity system and eventually add capacity. The target is 1 GW of additional capacity within 24 months and another 5 GW over the following four years.
That is also part of energy security. A country can hold large reserves and remain energetically fragile if it cannot sustain the power generation required to move the molecules.
Geopolitics matters
The United States is trying to reduce strategic exposure to systems where China, Russia and Iran have greater influence.
China seeks to secure barrels to maintain the pace of its industrial economy. Russia also uses energy as a source of income and global power. Washington is using licenses, commercial access, investment and control over certain financial flows to reorganize its energy relationship with Venezuela. OFAC has recently expanded part of that architecture to cover not just oil but minerals as well.
It is reasonable to question the structure of the Venezuelan agreement, its transparency or even its participants. There are legitimate reasons to do so. But those discussions do not remove the physical logic beneath this move. The United States is seeking not only more energy, but more routes and optionality within a geography where it still has influence.
The hemisphere is not an island
The Western Hemisphere cannot, and does not need to, disconnect from the rest of the world. Prices remain global. Europe will keep importing LNG. Asia will keep buying U.S. oil. And Latin American countries do not automatically become reliable suppliers simply because they are nearby.
Proximity does not eliminate political risk. Nor does it eliminate missing infrastructure, weak contracts, power problems, congested ports or decades of deferred maintenance. Geography helps. It does not operate the system by itself.
So what does energy security ultimately mean?
Probably something far less heroic than political rhetoric suggests.
It means having enough production, but also enough pipelines. Refineries capable of processing the molecules that are actually available.
It also means ports that can move them. Gas available when the power system needs it. Grids strong enough to deliver electricity. Strategic reserves that are genuinely usable. Contracts that survive political change. More than one supplier and more than one route. And enough capacity to respond when one of those pieces cannot perform.
That is why the Western Hemisphere matters. Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America contain an unusual combination of light and heavy oil, gas, LNG, refining, infrastructure, capital markets and industrial demand within a relatively short distance.
That does not guarantee energy security. But it creates the possibility of building it.