Bass Energy & Exploration is independently owned and operated by the Bass family.
Bass Energy & Exploration
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The US government has escalated its sanctions enforcement by seizing the oil tanker The Skipper off the coast of Venezuela. The vessel, sanctioned since 2022 for ties to Iran and Hezbollah, was reportedly carrying over 1 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude. This marks a shift from passive sanctions to active interdiction, with President Trump confirming the US intends to "keep the oil."
The seizure removes a significant cargo of heavy crude from the market at a time when supply is already tight. Refiners in the US Gulf Coast and China rely on these specific heavy grades for diesel production. By physically intercepting the cargo, the US is signaling that the "shadow fleet" trade is no longer safe, which could spike insurance premiums and widen the heavy-light price differential.
While headlines often focus on nuclear restarts, the partnership between NextEra Energy and Google Cloud heavily features natural gas. The deal aims to develop gigawatts of new capacity, acknowledging that intermittent renewables cannot support the 24/7 baseload demand of AI data centers. This validates the long-term investment case for natural gas as a critical "bridge" fuel that is effectively becoming a destination fuel.
The industry tidbit reveals that nearly 70% of new US data center capacity added since 2020 relies on natural gas-fired power (or coal in some regions like PJM) for reliability. This statistic counters the narrative that Big Tech is running solely on wind and solar, highlighting a disconnect between corporate "net-zero" marketing and physical grid reality.
The drone attack on the Heglig oil field in Sudan, which killed dozens of workers and security personnel, illustrates the extreme fragility of energy assets in conflict zones. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are vying for control of these assets, and the kinetic targeting of oil infrastructure removes supply stability from the region, adding another layer of geopolitical risk premium to global prices.
Caracas has labeled the seizure an act of "international piracy" and "barbaric dispossession." This rhetoric sets the stage for potential retaliatory measures, such as the nationalization of remaining foreign assets or harassment of US-allied shipping in the Caribbean, further raising the temperature in the Western Hemisphere’s energy trade.
The final weeks of 2025 have witnessed a dramatic escalation in the kinetic enforcement of energy sanctions and a pivotal realignment in how Big Tech powers its infrastructure. The global energy landscape is shifting from a phase of passive regulatory pressure to one defined by active interdiction and pragmatic power deals. In short, hard power is back at center stage in energy markets.
This report provides a multi-dimensional analysis of three critical developments reshaping the strategic calculus for energy investors and policymakers. First, in the Caribbean theater, the United States has moved beyond financial sanctions to direct naval interdiction. The seizure of a Venezuelan-linked supertanker by U.S. forces marks a turning point in enforcement against the Maduro regime – removing a massive volume of heavy crude from the market and signaling that the “shadow fleet” of illicit tankers is no longer safe from capture. Second, on the U.S. mainland, the lofty narrative of a rapid clean energy transition is being tempered by the reality of AI-driven power demand. A landmark deal between NextEra Energy and Google explicitly acknowledges that intermittent renewables alone cannot support 24/7 data centers. Natural gas is emerging as the indispensable backbone of America’s fast-growing digital economy. Third, in East Africa, the vulnerability of oil assets in conflict zones was starkly illustrated by a deadly drone strike on Sudan’s largest oil field, which killed dozens and halted operations. This highlights how energy production in war-torn regions remains prone to sudden, large-scale disruption.
The convergence of these trends suggests that the market is entering an era of “hard power” volatility, where physical security and baseload reliability command a premium over optimistic projections and diplomatic assurances.
The Asset: On December 10, 2025, U.S. special forces and Coast Guard units seized the oil supertanker The Skipper off the coast of Venezuela. The vessel – one of the largest tankers afloat – was loaded with approximately 2 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude. The Skipper had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 for its alleged role in a smuggling network that funded Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah. In fact, the ship was formerly known as Adisa and is part of a “shadow fleet” of aging tankers used to sneak sanctioned oil to willing buyers.
The Operation: This seizure was not a mere legal filing but a military operation involving fast-rope helicopter insertions and an at-sea boarding. Launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, two helicopters delivered a 20-person boarding team of U.S. Coast Guard and Marines onto the moving tanker at dawn. President Trump announced the successful capture in a White House event, stating the tanker was “seized for a very good reason” and indicating that the U.S. will “keep the oil” as contraband. Such direct interdictions of oil shipments represent a new tier of sanctions enforcement, effectively weaponizing Caribbean sea lanes against unauthorized Venezuelan exports.
Geopolitical Signal: By physically intercepting a ship on the high seas, Washington has sent a stark message: the illicit shadow fleet is no longer beyond the reach of U.S. power. Most Venezuelan oil exports (heavily discounted due to sanctions) were quietly finding their way to China via intermediaries. Now, traders and shipowners face the risk of total cargo loss and vessel impoundment. Insurance premiums for sanctioned voyages are likely to spike, and some shippers will simply walk away – a development that could sharply curtail Venezuela’s oil revenues. Rebecca Babin of CIBC noted that this escalation adds “short-term supply risk” to heavy crude markets, even if the overall price impact is muted by ample global stocks.
Any removal of Venezuelan barrels comes at a sensitive time for refiners dependent on heavy crude. The Skipper’s cargo – roughly 2 million barrels – is a substantial volume to suddenly vanish from the supply chain. Complex refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in China are configured for heavy, sour crude; they cannot simply substitute light oils without losing output of diesel and other products. Global heavy crude supplies were already tight due to OPEC+ cuts and declines in Mexico and Venezuela. S&P Global reported that heavy crude imports to the U.S. Gulf have “dropped sharply”, with refiners like Valero feeling the squeeze as Mexican and Venezuelan deliveries dry up.
Near term, refiners will bid up alternative sources such as Canadian oil sands crude or Middle Eastern grades, likely widening the price differential between heavy-sour and light-sweet oil. In other words, heavier barrels will command a premium as buyers scramble to replace Venezuela’s sanctioned supply. As one market analyst put it, “tensions are moving up the escalation ladder” and even a short disruption can reverberate in specific refining markets.
Venezuela’s government responded with outrage and fiery rhetoric. Caracas blasted the U.S. seizure of The Skipper as “shameless robbery” and “an act of international piracy,” arguing that Washington is stealing resources that belong to the Venezuelan people. In a statement, the Maduro administration claimed this proves the U.S. campaign against Venezuela was “always about our oil” and not about democracy or human rights.
Beyond the war of words, Venezuela and its allies (such as Cuba, which reportedly owned part of the seized cargo) have limited options to retaliate directly. However, analysts warn of asymmetric responses. These could include cyber attacks, harassment of commercial vessels in the region, or further tightening of alliances with U.S. rivals. The bold U.S. action also complicates ongoing diplomatic talks – any hope of easing oil sanctions on Venezuela (to boost global supply and lower prices) might be dead in the water now. In short, the Caribbean just became a more geopolitically charged shipping lane, and energy executives will be watching closely for any ripple effects.
Scope: A groundbreaking partnership between NextEra Energy (America’s largest utility company by market cap) and Google Cloud was unveiled this month, aimed at developing multiple gigawatts of new power capacity to support Google’s expanding network of data centers. This is not a typical renewable Power Purchase Agreement. Rather, it is an “all-of-the-above” energy deal: NextEra will build dedicated generation assets – including renewables and gas-fired power – for Google’s use. In essence, Google is co-investing in its own reliable electricity supply.
The “All-of-the-Above” Shift: This accord acknowledges a crucial truth often glossed over in corporate sustainability press releases: intermittent wind and solar are not enough to keep AI data centers running 24/7. Google’s servers require five-nines (99.999%) reliability, which means practically zero downtime. To achieve this, the new NextEra-Google plan explicitly includes “flexible gas-fired capacity” to guarantee round-the-clock power. While Google continues to buy wind, solar, and even invest in advanced nuclear (such as the small modular reactors and a revival of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa), natural gas turbines provide the on-demand surge capacity to cover any shortfall. Industry experts note this as a pragmatic turn: natural gas, long sold as a “bridge fuel” to a renewable future, is now becoming a destination fuel – the indispensable workhorse ensuring the lights stay on in the age of AI.
Behind the marketing of “100% renewable” initiatives lies the physical reality that the majority of new data center capacity in the U.S. is still backed by fossil fuels. In fact, industry data indicate that nearly 70% of new U.S. data center capacity added since 2020 relies on gas-fired or coal-fired power for its primary reliability. While tech companies often purchase renewable energy credits equivalent to their consumption, the grids feeding their facilities are often anchored by gas, coal, and nuclear generation. A recent International Energy Agency analysis noted that natural gas is currently the single largest source of electricity for data centers in the United States (over 40% share, followed by roughly 24% from renewables and the rest from nuclear and coal).
The takeaway: the physical power supporting America’s digital infrastructure is far from carbon-free. Even as Big Tech touts net-zero goals, their AI supercomputing clusters are, in practice, driving demand for more gas-fired power plants. A striking statistic from Data Center Knowledge summed it up – renewable output is available only ~25% of the time, so “AI factories cannot rely on it. Instead, they are turning to natural gas generation and small modular reactors” to meet their massive energy needs. In other words, without natural gas, the cloud as we know it would not function reliably. This “70% reality” is forcing a reevaluation of energy strategies: rather than being a temporary bridge, gas may be cementing itself as a long-term pillar of the digital economy.
Another consequence of these trends is the blurring line between utility companies and tech giants. Firms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta are no longer just customers of electricity – they are becoming power producers in their own right. Google is helping finance the restart of a nuclear plant (Duane Arnold) to secure carbon-free baseload power. NextEra, for its part, is teaming up with Basin Electric to build a new 1,450 MW natural gas plant in North Dakota, intended largely to service data center hubs in the Midwest. Across the country, there are proposals for dedicated data center power stations, some even located on-site (“behind the meter”) at the server farms.
This convergence means tech companies are increasingly dictating the mix of new generation. In effect, hyperscale data operators are planning their own mini-grids to guarantee resiliency. While this is good news for avoiding outages, it also tightens the market for everyone else. Every megawatt Google locks down for its own use is a megawatt not available to the broader grid. Over time, this could lead to higher prices or scarcity for other consumers, unless overall generation capacity expands in tandem. Utilities, regulators, and investors are now grappling with how to accommodate enormous, flat power loads from data centers that operate 24/7/365. The likely outcome is further growth in both natural gas and advanced nuclear projects, as these are among the few options capable of delivering massive, continuous power with high reliability.
In early December, the brutal civil conflict in Sudan spilled directly into the energy sector. A military drone attack struck the Heglig oil field in South Kordofan, Sudan’s most important oil-producing site, which had just been captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Dozens of people – including oilfield workers, RSF fighters, and at least several local leaders – were killed in the strike. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) took credit for the drone attack, which was carried out by a Turkish-made Bayraktar Akinci UCAV, according to RSF statements. The RSF had seized the Heglig field only a day earlier, forcing Sudanese engineers and soldiers to flee.
This incident highlights the extreme vulnerability of oil infrastructure in active war zones. Heglig’s production was halted overnight. Both sides exchanged accusations: the RSF called the strike a “violation of international law” and evidence that the SAF would rather destroy national assets than let them fall into rebel hands. Sudan’s oil output was already sharply diminished by months of fighting; now even the prospect of restoring flows from Heglig is uncertain. The shockwaves extend beyond Sudan’s borders – landlocked South Sudan depends on the Heglig facilities and pipelines to export its own crude. In the wake of the attack, South Sudan’s government confirmed that its soldiers had been sent to secure parts of the Heglig complex, and that its oil exports have been repeatedly disrupted by the conflict.
The Sudan drone strike underscores a broader point about global supply security: energy infrastructure has become a soft target. Whether it’s drones over a Sudanese oilfield, cyberattacks on pipelines, or missile strikes on refineries (as seen in past incidents in Saudi Arabia), there are many ways to suddenly knock major production offline. Such asymmetric risks create a persistent geopolitical risk premium on oil prices. Markets may have largely priced in the losses from chronic conflict zones – for example, few count on Libya, Yemen, or Sudan to contribute stable supply – but that also means there is little cushion if a new outage occurs elsewhere.
For companies, these risks make investing in troubled regions deeply uncertain. Facilities in conflict areas face not just physical destruction, but also the exodus of foreign staff and the reluctance of insurers to cover operations. In Sudan’s case, what international oil company would venture back in now? The longer a conflict keeps oil in the ground, the more likely those barrels never return (due to reservoir damage, theft, or lack of investment in maintenance). Thus, ongoing wars effectively remove some supply from the future equation. Energy analysts note that since 2020, conflict-driven disruptions have become a structural factor tightening the supply outlook. The events in Heglig are a stark reminder: above-ground risks can erase production as quickly as a price crash can, and sometimes with longer-lasting effects.
In this late-2025 landscape, abstract market forces are ceding importance to concrete displays of power:
The era of assuming secure, rules-based global energy trade is over. The value of an energy asset now hinges as much on its security arrangements and political context as on its geological potential. We are witnessing a bifurcation of the market into “secure” supply chains (e.g. U.S. domestic shale gas, or oil protected by U.S. or NATO navies) versus “at-risk” volumes that face sanctions enforcement or conflict threats. The gap in pricing and investment appeal between these two categories is likely to widen. In practical terms, that means well-protected projects (like Gulf of Mexico oil or Texas LNG) will attract more capital despite moderate returns, while high-risk region oil (like Venezuela’s Orinoco or Sudan’s fields) will struggle to find partners even at a steep discount. Hard power has made a comeback in energy economics, and everyone from traders to cloud computing giants will need to adjust their strategies accordingly.
Bass Energy & Exploration is independently owned and operated by the Bass family.
Bass Energy & Exploration
7 NE 6th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73104