The Trump administration, which struck a deal with Venezuela last week to use a substantial amount of the country’s oil, will be working with Alejandro Betancourt López as the agreement takes shape over the coming weeks.
Betancourt López, 46, is the CEO of North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), Venezuela’s second-largest private oil producer.
Over the past decade, he has been investigated by multiple countries, including the United States, over alleged money laundering, according to The Washington Post. According to the outlet, the U.S. has not acted on an arrest warrant from Switzerland and has instead allowed Betancourt López to enter the country repeatedly for meetings with the Trump administration about the Venezuelan oil deal.
Betancourt López has been investigated by U.S., Swiss and Spanish authorities over his alleged role in a scheme that prosecutors say embezzled more than $1 billion from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA.
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Betancourt López has denied wrongdoing and has never been criminally charged in connection to the alleged scheme. In 2018, Abraham Edgardo Ortega, a former executive director at PDVSA, pleaded guilty in federal court to one money laundering conspiracy charge.
“Mr. Betancourt has never been charged with a crime in any jurisdiction. He is dedicated to serving the people of Venezuela by championing the country’s economic revitalization and, when helpful and appropriate, acting as an intermediary between its government and the United States,” NABEP’s general counsel, Sara Chouraqui, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
In a statement on Monday, Betancourt celebrated the oil deal between the U.S. and Venezuela.
“Venezuela is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, hardworking people and untapped potential,” Betancourt López said in a statement on Monday. “This transaction will unleash that potential to the great benefit of both Venezuelans and Americans.”
Under the deal, the U.S. will have the right to buy 20% of the oil produced from all current and future NABEP-operated fields at the cost of production, according to the White House.
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The agreement also gives the U.S. first dibs on purchasing the remaining 80% of NABEP’s oil production before it can be sold to other customers, allowing Washington to secure additional supplies during an energy emergency.
Without spending taxpayer money, the U.S. government received a 35% ownership stake in NABEP’s parent company through the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital. The company says the stake could eventually generate hundreds of billions of dollars in value and dividend payments.
The agreement also gives the U.S. government veto power over appointments to NABEP’s board of directors and requires a majority of the board’s members to be U.S. citizens.
The initial announcement did not identify NABEP or Betancourt López. President Donald Trump said Friday that the deal would greatly increase the U.S. oil supply and “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future.”
Venezuela’s president, Delcy Rodríguez, publicly backed the deal as well, saying in a statement Friday that it could generate more than $200 billion in tax revenue for the country.
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NABEP, which is headquartered in Barbados, produces roughly 200,000 barrels of oil per day, according to its website. A person close to the company told The New York Times it intends to take on up to $5 billion in debt to boost output to 1 million barrels per day within five years.
Betancourt López founded NABEP in April 2024, but his involvement in Venezuela’s oil industry dates back to 2011, when he bought a stake in Petrozamora, a PDVSA joint venture that operated mature oil fields in Lake Maracaibo, according to The Times. Those fields later became the foundation of NABEP’s operations.
After the Trump administration ousted Nicolás Maduro from power in January, U.S. officials began looking for partners who would advance American interests in Venezuela, The Times reported.
Because of Betancourt López’s track record of increasing oil production in the fields his company manages, U.S. officials wanted to work with him on this public-private oil deal, according to The Times.
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