Fill up your tank now, because oil prices are about to go higher. Three more international oil companies are out of the game in Venezuela, an unprecedented exit from an energy-hungry industry. They just can’t do business with a thug.

Venezuelan dictator has sent his agents to seize control of the assets of two major companies, Total of France and ENI of Italy, in a confiscation move directed at their resistence to being forced in joint ventures that are nothing more than communist workers collectives run by Chavista political hacks. ENI calls it a direct violation of its existing contractual rights and vows to sue.

Now Statoil of Norway has pulled out, selling an oil production stake at a fire-sale price to Venezuela’s state oil company in a bid to avoid being forced into the same kind of workers’ collective.

These pullouts, voluntary and not, come on the heels of ExxonMobil‘s big pullout. Last week, the Venezuelan oil minister publicly declared that Exxon was “no longer welcome” in the increasingly Marxist country, a move that prompted oil prices to rise worldwide as available supply diminishes.

One way or another, Venezuela’s dictator is determined to drive oil prices as high as he can. He wants his reserves declared higher than Saudi Arabia’s in a bid to seize more power in that body, too. The problem is, he’s killing off production so that only his rivals benefit. This is nothing more than the action of a thug at the wheel. But it will greatly affect Chavez’s ability to finance his self-styled “revolucion” and his capacity to meddle abroad. One way or another, this will create a crisis.