The White House on Monday released the details of an energy agreement it is calling the biggest oil deal in history, saying Venezuela’s interim government has granted a U.S.-backed company 100-year concessions covering 17 oil fields with roughly 65 billion barrels in proven reserves.
The concessions were awarded to North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a privately held company owned by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt and already the country’s second-largest private oil producer. The deal was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the U.S. side, with interim Venezuelan President Delcy RodrÃguez representing Caracas.
Under the terms, NABEP has granted the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital a 35 percent equity stake in its corporate parent “at no cost to the American taxpayer,” the White House said. The State Department will separately have the right to buy 20 percent of all current and future output at production cost, along with a right of first refusal on the remaining 80 percent. Washington will also hold veto power over board appointments, and a majority of NABEP’s board must be U.S. citizens.
NABEP has committed to investing up to $100 billion in new Venezuelan oil infrastructure to rapidly scale production, which currently stands above 200,000 barrels per day, with a stated goal of surpassing 1 million barrels per day in the near term. The White House projects Venezuela will receive roughly $200 billion in royalty and tax payments over the deal’s first 25 years.
A discrepancy has emerged between the two governments over the agreement’s length: RodrÃguez has described it publicly as a 25-year deal, while the White House fact sheet specifies 100-year concessions for the 17 fields in question.
Many of the fields involved were previously operated by Russian or Chinese firms, and the administration cast the agreement as part of an effort to push rival powers out of the Western Hemisphere, invoking the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine. Speaking in the Oval Office, President Trump said Venezuela’s reserves represented “unbelievable value that was sitting dormant” and said the U.S. intended to “take all of that.”
The deal follows a U.S. military operation in January that removed then-President Nicolás Maduro from power. Some analysts have expressed skepticism that Venezuela’s oil sector, weakened by years of underinvestment, can be revived as quickly as the administration projects.
