The White House on Monday released terms of a deal granting the Pentagon a 35% ownership stake in a new oil company operating across Venezuela’s reserves. The State Department secured a guarantee to purchase 20% of the venture’s output at cost.
The company is a joint venture with North American Blue Energy Partners, already the second-largest operator in Venezuela. NABEP, owned by Alejandro Betancourt, has agreed to invest $100 billion in new oil infrastructure. The White House described the arrangement as coming “at zero cost” to the United States.
Venezuelan interim authorities have granted NABEP 100-year concessions over 17 oil fields with proven reserves of about 65 billion barrels. Many of those fields were previously held by Russian or Chinese firms, the White House said.
The U.S. government will hold veto power over board appointments, with a majority of board members required to be U.S. citizens. The fact sheet stated the venture will retain U.S. auditors, lawyers and advisers, and that the agreement is governed by U.S. law and subject to U.S. courts.
The deal, first announced Friday by President Donald Trump, follows the capture nine months ago of then-President Nicolás Maduro on federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges. The administration has pressed to raise Venezuelan production since sanctions were eased earlier this year.
Former U.S. energy advisers have cautioned that the structure carries political risk. Future governments in either Venezuela or the United States could contest the concessions or the ownership terms, they warned.
The venture is intended to become a new oil giant, according to the White House, which framed the plan as a way to extract energy from reserves long tied up under foreign operators. Opposition figures in Venezuela have criticized the terms as a resource grab.
The 17 fields and their reserve estimates form the core of the concession package now confirmed by both Caracas authorities and Washington.