US Gains Majority Control Over 65 Billion Barrels of Venezuelan Oil

The US government signed an oil production deal with Venezuelan company North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) to develop 17 oil fields with an estimated potential of about 65 billion barrels of crude.

The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital received a 35% equity stake in NABEP at no cost to US taxpayers, according to deal details released by the White House. This arrangement gives the US majority control over 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's proven crude reserves, which is about 20% of the country's total 303 billion barrels.

President Donald Trump called the agreement historic and the biggest oil deal in world history, stating it allows the US to purchase 20% of the production at cost. The US also gains preferential access to the remaining 80% of output. NABEP's CEO, Alejandro Betancourt, was previously a target of US money-laundering investigations involving funds embezzled from state-owned oil company PDVSA.

A US official, who declined to be named, stated most legal challenges against Betancourt were nearly a decade old and he currently has no legal problems in the United States. The official added that NABEP's record of pumping oil in Venezuela made Betancourt the best partner. The deal comes eight months after the US ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a military raid on January 3, 2026, and co-opted the remaining regime led by interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

The Rodríguez government granted NABEP concessions to the 17 oilfields for a century. Tyler Priest, an oil industry historian at the University of Iowa, noted it is difficult to find a historical precedent for the US government taking a direct ownership stake in an oil company operating in a foreign nation. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado backed Washington’s role in developing the country’s oil reserves but stated the US needed a more competent partner than the current Venezuelan government, which she called an illegitimate regime. Some Venezuelan residents expressed fears the US will extract the greatest profits, leaving little for them.