Venezuela has the richest oil reserves in the world. Yes, larger than Russia or the Middle Eastern countries.
This is the top, and it's probably still very relevant, even if the data is from 2016:
But what are these reserves good for if they can't be exported due to renewed US sanctions? Geopolitics is a bitch. How else would a country that had an inflation rate of 190% last year (and a long period of hard times) be hit by another wave of sanctions, when the ones that hurt are the people, and rarely the politicians? Looks like those reserves shouldn't be touched, being so close to the US and all... They'd be better off controlled by a US company, sometime in the future... At which point, Venezuela will be an ally, of course...
But Venezuela or rather its long-lasting regime doesn't like that perspective. And since they can't sell their oil for US dollars (and probably not for Euros, either), their market has reduced significantly, mainly to the BRICS countries and applicants that aren't rich in oil and want to trade in something else than the US dollar. I don't think they have enough countries in this category. Certainly not enough to match their export potential.
So, then they started to explore alternative solutions. Cryptocurrency is already widely used in their country with such rampant inflation, but now they want to elevate it at the state level for oil exports. The thinking is: if they can't deal in US dollars, why not use stablecoins that are pegged to US dollars instead?
I would have no issue with this logic... if there wasn't a problem. Tether (USDT), same as USD Coin (USDC), became a sort of proxy for USD in the crypto world. I don't believe either Tether Corp or Circle and Coinbase have autonomy when it comes to the USD-based stablecoins they issue and maintain, especially on matters involving breaching of sanctions, funding of terrorism, or whatever other plausible pretexts can be found to fully control something.
Unlike algo stablecoins (which are too small to matter), USDT and USDC have USD deposits and other liquid USD-denominated investments that back the peg, and bank accounts that can be frozen, at which point, their peg would go nuts. So, they are at the mercy of the government, especially in a Wild West territory they operate in.
So, I don't think Venezuela will be able to use USDT or USDC to circumvent US sanctions unless the US closes its eyes to this. The question is, will they? Or will they show who truly controls USD-backed stablecoins in clear cases, not in general?
There is the possibility that the Venezuelan state oil company will be able to conduct these transactions in a way that raises no questions and without any red flags being hit, but when we talk about huge amounts of USDT, I wonder if they can hide this.