US election means little to Tehran and Caracas

Geopolitical strife embroiling Iran and political corruption in Venezuela suggest little near-term change to oil production from either of the sanctioned states

The US will choose between two starkly different candidates in November’s election, but for the oil industries of Iran and Venezuela—the two OPEC members against which Washington has imposed economic sanctions—the result is likely a foregone conclusion. Washington’s relationship with Iran has been turbulent since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and poor with Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was elected in 1999 and Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2013. The US is not the only government to have sanctions in place against Iran. On many occasions in the past 30 years, the EU, the UN and individual countries (e.g. Canada, Australia, India, Switzerland, Japan and South Korea) have imposed various measu