Venezuela

Trump Is Taking a Stake in Venezuela's Oil Industry and This Crony Is Cashing In

Alejandro Betancourt has become the key go-between for the Trump administration, Venezuela’s new regime, and American oil companies.

Francisco Poleo | 9.3.2026 11:10 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Tebnad/Dreamstime/Al Drago/UPI/Newscom/Wiki Commons.)

After the ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump promised to make the South American nation "prosperous again." Eight months later, we're getting a clear picture of how the Trump administration hopes to achieve this objective: by becoming a shareholder in a Venezuelan oil company.

Under an extraordinary agreement first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, the U.S. government is taking a 35 percent passive stake in North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), the company led by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. Under the terms of the agreement, NABEP will have the opportunity to develop 17 oil fields said to hold 65 billion barrels—about one-fifth of Venezuela's total reserves—while the U.S. government would gain preferential rights to buy 20 percent of its output at cost. The State Department would also have the right of first refusal to purchase the remaining 80 percent, per the White House. The Pentagon would ultimately hold those interests, according to the Journal, although a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters that the office structuring the deal lacks authority to take equity.

The arrangement emerged like a bunny out of a hat after major American oil companies proved reluctant to invest billions in a country still burdened by political risk, weak institutions, and, consequently, an uncertain legal order. (Trump had predicted otherwise in January, saying American oil companies would spend billions to "fix the badly broken infrastructure" and "start making money for the country.") Regardless, the deal is sure to be a boon for Betancourt, one of the largest beneficiaries of Trump's involvement in Venezuela.

Betancourt belongs to the generation Venezuelans have nicknamed the bolichicos: young men from wealthy old Caracas families who became fabulously rich under Hugo Chávez's supposedly anti-oligarchic revolution. When Chávez officially declared an electricity emergency in 2010, the government spent billions of dollars while bypassing ordinary procurement. Betancourt and his cousin, Pedro Trebbau, allegedly decided to cash in on this lapse of oversight. Their........

© Reason.com