Trump touted a record Venezuela oil deal. Now reality is setting in

An oil pumpjack at Lake Maracaibo, in Cabimas, Venezuela, in January | reuters

Reuters

Oct 31, 2026

HOUSTON/MARACAIBO, Venezuela – U.S. President Donald Trump called it the biggest oil deal in history: 17 Venezuelan oilfields holding some 64 billion barrels of reserves, handed to a single company.

Delivering on it falls to North American Blue Energy Partners, a little-known firm led by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, who was until recently a target of U.S. money-laundering investigations involving funds embezzled from the state-owned oil company PDVSA. The company’s deal with Washington grants the U.S. a 35%-stake in its corporate parent and the right to buy 20% of output at production cost.

NABEP says it will lift oil output fourfold to more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd), up from about 224,000 bpd in mid-October.

In a time of both misinformation and too much information,
quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

SUBSCRIBE NOW