A U.S. oil company controlled by a Venezuelan business tycoon will replace Chinese and Russian operators of several Venezuelan oil fields, Reuters has reported, citing two unnamed U.S. officials.
North American Blue Energy Partners, which is backed by the U.S. government, has been granted 14 oil deals by the Venezuelan government. The U.S. government will have rights to a 35% stake in the company plus access to 20% of NABEP’s production at cost. The federal government will also have the right of first refusal for the purchase of the other 80% of NABEP’s production from Venezuelan fields.
“NABEP has developed an ambitious plan to rapidly scale production by investing up to $100 billion in new oil infrastructure in Venezuela, helping to drive economic growth, support thousands of high-paying jobs in Venezuela, and lead to tens of billions in broader economic activity,” the White House said on Monday.
“Venezuela is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, hardworking people and untapped potential,” Alejandro Betancourt, owner of North American Blue Energy Partners, said in a statement, as cited by Reuters. “This transaction will unleash that potential to the great benefit of both Venezuelans and Americans.”
The fields that NABEP will now take over were previously operated by several Chinese companies and Russia’s Roszarubezhneft, a state-owned entity that managed the joint ventures with PDVSA. The Chinese operators included Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp., as well as China Concord Resources, which was sanctioned by Washington back in 2019 for dealing in Iranian crude.
“Not only are we opening up new opportunities for the U.S. government to benefit and for U.S. operators to benefit, we are opening up the United States as the market for this oil which was previously being sent to China,” one of the officials who spoke to Reuters said.
At the end of last week, President Trump announced an “historic deal” for Venezuelan oil, covering 17 fields with target production of 1.5 million barrels per day. Over the weekend, reports emerged that the operator of the fields would be North American Blue Energy Partners rather than the U.S. government.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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