WASHINGTON, United States: Under the US-Venezuela oil deal, the Pentagon receives a 35% stake in a company controlled by billionaire Alejandro Betancourt. US authorities paused an earlier money-laundering investigation into Betancourt this year.
Under the agreement announced last week, the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital will hold a 35% stake in North American Blue Energy Partners, or NABEP.
The State Department can buy 20% of its oil at cost and receives preferential access to the remaining output. Reuters reported that the arrangement gives the United States access to about one-fifth of Venezuela’s crude reserves for decades.
Betancourt also helped broker a January oil-trading agreement that has resulted in exports of more than 135 million barrels of crude and fuel through August, according to vessel-monitoring data and people familiar with the negotiations.
The deal follows a change in Betancourt’s relationship with Washington. Reuters reported that he provided information before January 3.
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Operation that removed former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and assisted US efforts targeting sanctioned oil tankers.
A US official said Betancourt currently faces no legal problems in the United States and described NABEP as the strongest available partner for increasing Venezuelan oil production.
Authorities in the United States, Spain and Switzerland have investigated Betancourt, but prosecutors have never indicted him.
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Federal prosecutors in Florida had investigated an alleged scheme involving more than $1 billion taken from state oil company PDVSA and laundered through property and overseas accounts.
Prosecutors paused that inquiry earlier this year. Swiss authorities separately withdrew a request to extradite Betancourt from Britain in May. However, the Zurich Public Prosecutor’s Office said its criminal proceedings against him remain active.
