White House reveals details of US-Venezuela oil deal giving Pentagon stake

The White House has revealed new details of United States President Donald Trump’s push to gain access to Venezuela’s oil industry, with a deal that will give the Pentagon a stake in roughly one-fifth of the country’s vast oil reserves.

According to a fact sheet released by the Trump administration late on Monday, the US is creating a private joint venture with North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), owned by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. NABEP is already the second-largest operator in Venezuela, behind Chevron.

In a statement, Betancourt said Venezuela is “blessed with an abundance of natural resources, hardworking people and untapped potential”, adding that the deal will “unleash that potential to the great benefit of both Venezuelans and Americans”.

Betancourt’s company has agreed to put up $100bn in new oil infrastructure investments.

The deal will give the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital a 35 percent ownership stake in the company, the White House disclosed. The US will also be guaranteed a right to buy 20 percent of the output at cost, orchestrated through the State Department.

The agreement, which the White House said secures “our energy dominance for the next century”, was signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez is giving the company 100-year rights over 17 oil fields with proven reserves of 65 billion barrels. Many of those fields were previously owned by Russian or Chinese firms, the White House said.

The White House said: “The majority of the incremental oil fields to be operated by NABEP were previously controlled or operated by Russian and Chinese firms, or by corrupt cronies of [former presidents Nicolas] Maduro and [Hugo] Chavez.”

The sweeping agreement has been met with scepticism from some analysts who say it will take years to revive Venezuela’s production, but Trump and his aides are pitching it as a chance to develop a new oil giant in the Western Hemisphere.

Trump has been pushing to boost oil production in Venezuela since the January military operation that captured then-President Maduro and his wife on US “narcoterrorism” and drug trafficking charges.

On Monday, Trump acknowledged that US consumers would not immediately see a change in petrol prices. Asked about a timeline at the White House, Trump said “it could be a little bit” for prices to fall, and he played down analyst predictions that it could take years.

“If it was two years, you know, that’s a short period of time,” he said.

Trump said the deal would provide a source to help refill the US’s strategic oil reserves, which have been drawn down as the war on Iran chokes global oil shipments. He added that Venezuela’s heavy oil would also go towards producing asphalt and other goods.