By Alexandra Bruce
Forbidden Knowledge TV
April 7, 2026
rumble.comDue to the policies of Donald Trump, the US is now the world's largest producer of both crude oil and natural gas and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz is triggering a reorientation of global energy systems toward North America.
An informal analysis of these events that's being called "The Hybrid Petro-LNG Dollar & the AI Energy Map" and being attributed to Argentinean tech entrepreneur and investor, Martin Varsavsky went viral last week. Podcaster, Tim Pool is seen reading from an iteration of it, here.
It describes the evolution of the Petrodollar system into a hybrid petro/LNG dollar, whereby a US dollar solely backed by foreign crude production is now additionally being backed by domestic crude and LNG exports. Varsavsky concludes that whoever controls the energy and monetary system will also control the "compute infrastructure" necessary for the first true Artificial Super Intelligence.
The original 1974 US-Saudi Agreement, which standardized oil trade in dollars has faced unprecedented pressure in recent years, as Gulf states have explored non-dollar trade and alternative alliances. However, the sheer scale of US domestic energy exports is now creating a new, direct demand for dollars.
Whereas major petroleum-exporting states have bought US Treasuries with oil profits via Petrodollar Recycling, a hybrid system is emerging, where global buyers must also acquire dollars to purchase crude and LNG produced by the US. This structural shift is happening regardless of how the Iran conflict resolves.
There is currently no alternative supplier of comparable scale that can match the combined volume of US crude and LNG while maintaining the same level of market transparency and financial liquidity. Despite China's attempt to promote the petroyuan, the US remains the dominant "swing exporter" due to its flexible, private energy markets.
The text argues that the US strategy isn't just about selling its own gas, but about denying access to others. By controlling the maritime insurance and physical security of the Strait of Hormuz and the Malacca Strait, the US forces China into a "compute deficit." Cutting-edge AI training runs on massive GPU clusters that require constant, high-density base-load power, so any disruption to LNG imports directly impacts the reliability of the power grid needed for LLM (Large Language Model) training runs.
The "Hybrid Petro-LNG Dollar" is not just a currency; it is a full-stack monopoly on the inputs of the 21st-century economy. Artificial intelligence is run on data centers that require massive uninterrupted base load electricity, primarily provided by natural gas. Semiconductor fabrication requires helium and rare earths. By choking the Strait of Hormuz and crippling Middle Eastern LNG and helium production, the United States is systematically degrading China's ability to power its data centers and to fabricate semiconductors at scale.
The text concludes:
"Whoever controls the energy corridors controls the monetary system. Whoever controls the monetary system and the energy supply simultaneously controls the compute infrastructure that determines which civilization builds ASI first. The United States is seizing all three."
"THE HYBRID PETRO-LNG DOLLAR & THE AI ENERGY MAP" Viral Text attributed to Martin Varsavsky
Just five years ago, the global energy map was a board with multiple players. Russia supplied Europe with 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas through pipelines that had been operating for decades. Iran and Venezuela sold heavy crude to China outside the dollar financial system. Qatar supplied a fifth of the world's LNG from Ras Laffan, the largest liquefaction facility on the planet. China was building the Belt and Road Initiative with an overland corridor through Iran, Iraq and Syria that allowed it to bypass the maritime straits controlled by the US Navy. The world had options. And when a buyer has options, the seller has no power.
Today that board is unrecognizable. If we stop viewing the geopolitical events of the last four years as isolated episodes and observe them as a single sequence, the architecture of an American grand strategy becomes visible.
The first move was Europe. The Ukraine conflict provided the justification for sanctions that collapsed Russian pipeline gas from 150 billion cubic meters to 40 billion. Then Nord Stream was destroyed and any possibility of return was permanently eliminated. The United States went from supplying 28% of Europe's LNG in 2021 to 58% by 2025, exporting a record 111 million metric tons, the first country in history to break 100 million. Europe went from a customer with alternatives to a captive market purchasing its survival in dollars.
The second move was Syria. The fall of Assad severed the critical node connecting China's Belt and Road to the Mediterranean. The trilateral railway linking Iran, Iraq and Syria, designed to bypass Western maritime chokepoints, was destroyed. This geographically isolated Iran and cleared the path for what came next.
The third was Venezuela. In January of this year, the United States effectively took control of the world's largest heavy crude reserves. The US Gulf Coast has the most advanced refining complex on earth, built specifically to process heavy sour crude. Phillips 66, Valero and the rest are now positioned to refine hundreds of 1000s of barrels of Venezuelan crude daily. The United States captured a massive strategic reserve and consolidated its position as the dominant exporter of refined petroleum products, an industry worth $110 bn in 2025 alone. Venezuela and Iran were the two major oil supply channels that existed outside the dollar system. Both produced heavy crude sold primarily to China and outside US financial supervision. Both are being neutralized within 90 days.
Which brings us to the fourth move: Iran and the Middle East energy shock. Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field, the world's largest natural gas reservoir. Iran retaliated against Qatar's Ras Laffan. QatarEnergy's own assessment is that 17% of its export capacity is gone and recovery will take up to five years. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. European gas prices spiked 70%. Asian spot prices doubled. The only remaining scaled supplier is the United States. If Iran falls and a successor government is installed under American influence (the Delcy Model, described weeks ago), roughly 40 to 45 million barrels per day of global production, out of a total of 103 mn, will be effectively under US control. OPEC becomes irrelevant because the American coalition becomes the marginal producer. And this goes beyond oil. What we are witnessing is the evolution of the petrodollar system into a hybrid petro/LNG dollar. The old system was built on Saudi crude priced in dollars. The new one is built on American crude plus American gas from the Gulf Coast, with no alternative supplier of comparable scale. The dependency is deeper because LNG infrastructure requires long term contracts and regasification terminals that lock buyers into supply relationships for decades. Europe and the Pacific allies, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, cannot switch providers. There is nowhere left to pivot. They are locked into the American energy system.
The market confirms it. The dollar index went from 96 to 101. Gold is down roughly 20% from its January all time high. Bitcoin is down 20% on the year. Brent is above $100. European and Asian institutions are liquidating precious metals and crypto to buy dollars because they need dollars to buy the only remaining scaled energy supply. The world is selling its gold to buy American energy in American currency. But the strategy has a deeper layer, and it is the one I consider most important.
Artificial intelligence is a physical industry. It runs on power and chips. Data centers require massive uninterrupted baseload electricity, primarily provided by natural gas. Semiconductor fabrication requires helium and rare earths. By choking the Strait of Hormuz and crippling Middle Eastern LNG and helium production, the United States is systematically degrading China's ability to power its data centers and fabricate semiconductors at scale. The United States is energy self sufficient, especially with newly captured Venezuelan reserves and expanding Gulf Coast capacity running on domestic gas. China, on the other hand, is import dependent and every joule it imports now transits chokepoints the US Navy controls. Iran was the Belt and Road's overland energy bypass, the corridor that allowed China to mitigate the Malacca Trap. With Iran neutralized, that corridor is severed. China faces a world where its compute infrastructure competes for scraps on a depleted global LNG market while American data centers run at full capacity on domestic energy.
Russia is next in the sequence. A postwar Iran reopening under American influence competes directly with Russia for the same refineries in China and India at lower cost. Russia loses its last structural advantage in heavy crude and its economic lifeline. Meanwhile, under the cover of the Iran war, Ukraine has been opportunistically destroying Russian energy infrastructure. The message from Washington becomes very simple: we dismantled two regimes in three months, your economy is about to get crushed, sign the Ukraine deal.
And then Trump sits down with Xi holding every card. Complete energy dominance. The hybrid petro/LNG dollar fortified. Iran cleared. Russia cornered. China facing the Malacca Trap fully closed with no remaining energy bypass. Israel and the Gulf states are absorbing the kinetic cost of a conflict whose primary beneficiary, contrary to the prevailing narrative, is the United States. Qatar offline for five years reprices the entire global gas market in favor of American exporters for the remainder of the decade. The Gulf states face years of rebuilding. Europe faces its second energy crisis in four years. The average American may face temporary moderate inflation and higher gas prices. But if you are the architect of the American empire and you view the rise of China and Chinese ASI as an existential winner-takes-all scenario, the collateral damage is acceptable cost.
Whoever controls the energy corridors controls the monetary system. Whoever controls the monetary system and the energy supply simultaneously controls the compute infrastructure that determines which civilization builds ASI first. The United States is seizing all three.