US awards century-long Venezuelan oil concession to Betancourt’s NABEP amid European money laundering probes

The US government on Monday formally identified North American Blue Energy Partners as the concessionaire for 17 Venezuelan oil fields holding an estimated 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, representing roughly one-fifth of the country’s total crude assets. The arrangement grants NABEP, Venezuela’s second-largest private oil operator, 100-year operating rights over fields previously controlled by Russian and Chinese state-backed entities including Rosneft. The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital will hold a 35 percent passive ownership stake structured through penny warrants, requiring minimal capital outlay while securing governance rights and majority American representation on the company’s board of directors.

Under terms announced by the White House, the State Department secured preferential rights to purchase 20 percent of NABEP’s output at cost, plus first-refusal rights on the remaining 80 percent of production. The company committed to investing up to 100 billion dollars in infrastructure rehabilitation across extraction sites, upgraders, pipeline networks and Caribbean maritime export terminals. Venezuelan interim authorities project the concessions will generate more than 200 billion dollars in fiscal revenues through royalties and taxation over 25 years, though the White House references the century-long concession period.

Alejandro Betancourt López, the 46-year-old controlling shareholder, remains under active investigation by Swiss and Spanish prosecutors examining alleged money laundering schemes connected to state oil company PDVSA. British authorities detained Betancourt twice in 2025 following European extradition requests, and Spanish police raided his Toledo estate at Swiss prosecutors’ request. The Trump administration reportedly intervened in Swiss proceedings and pressed the UK government to lift travel restrictions, enabling Betancourt to function as the primary intermediary in Caracas. No criminal charges have been filed against him in any jurisdiction.

Betancourt built his fortune through Derwick Associates, which secured five billion dollars in no-bid electricity contracts during the Chavez administration’s 2009-2010 power crisis. Transparencia Venezuela estimated in 2018 that 11 Derwick projects billed at approximately five billion dollars should have cost 2.1 billion dollars, representing potential overbilling of 138 percent. Betancourt’s legal representatives have denied all corruption allegations. The businessman expanded into oil through connections to Gazprombank and Petrozamora joint ventures with PDVSA before breaking with the Maduro government in 2020 over his support for US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Venezuelan authorities ordered his arrest and froze domestic assets before the 2023 purge of Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami’s faction cleared Betancourt’s return to Caracas operations.