Geoff Dyer in London, Jamie Smyth in New York, Ella Lee in Washington and Joe Daniels in Bogotá Published August 30 2026 The controversial Venezuelan energy executive who is now the Trump administration’s business partner has begun talking to potential investors in the oilfields they will jointly control. As part of the unusual energy agreement between Washington and Caracas announced on Friday, Alejandro Betancourt, who owns the second-largest private oil business in Venezuela, is the administration’s minority partner in a company that will control more than 65bn barrels of the country’s reserves. The new company will seek to award licences or establish joint ventures with US energy groups and other investors in some or all of the 17 different oilfields it has access to, according to people briefed on the agreement.

Some of those oilfields have previously been held by Chinese and Russian companies. Betancourt is a highly polarising figure in Venezuela because of his close connections to the socialist government that has been in power since Hugo Chávez took office in 1999. He is the most prominent Bolichico, a term for the class of politically connected magnates who emerged under Chávez.

Betancourt, the White House and the US state department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The agreement, which was announced on Friday evening by Donald Trump, is an attempt to generate confidence in Venezuela’s struggling oil sector, which collapsed over the past decade due to mismanagement and sanctions. Following the January military operation to seize and capture former president Nicolás Maduro, the US had hoped to spur an investment boom in the country’s oil sector.

However, to the administration’s frustration, few major companies have been willing to invest in Venezuela because of what they see as the political and legal risks under the government now led by interim president Delcy Rodríguez. Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips, which both had billions of dollars of assets expropriated in Venezuela over recent decades, have for the moment decided not to invest. Several companies with existing operations in the country — Chevron, Repsol and Eni — have made agreements with Venezuela’s government this year.

In a televised address on Saturday night, Rodríguez said the deal included the development of eight greenfield blocks in Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt, with minimum royalties of 16 per cent and income tax of 34 per cent. The interim president did not mention Betancourt or his company, North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP). As part of the agreement, the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital will provide guarantees to the oil companies that take on the planned licences in order to cover some of the financial and political risks they face in Venezuela.

The OSC was set up under Joe Biden’s administration to boost investment in technologies deemed critical for national security and has the capacity to lend up to $200bn. One person briefed on the deal said the OSC provided a means of offering guarantees to potential investors without asking Congress for funding. Betancourt’s company NABEP produces about 200,000 barrels of oil a day.

The private investors it is negotiating with on potential oilfield licences or joint ventures include Lionheart Holdings, according to people briefed on the talks. Lionheart Holdings is sponsored by Lionheart Capital, a Miami-based investment firm founded by Ophir Sternberg.