The United States, the world's largest oil producer, continues to import heavy sour crude oil from Venezuela due to its refining infrastructure being specifically designed for this type of oil. While U.S. production is largely light and sweet, its refineries, particularly on the Gulf Coast, require the thicker, denser, and high-sulfur Venezuelan crude. This demand, coupled with Venezuela possessing the world's largest oil reserves, makes its crude attractive to the U.S. for maintaining energy market dominance and stable oil prices.