Donald Trump says he has secured a vast US stake in Venezuelan oil industry

From the article:

The plan involves the U.S. taking more direct control over Venezuelan reserves as crime and steep logistical challenges discourage private investors.

Under it, according to federal officials, the U.S. has gained a controlling stake in nearly a quarter of Venezuela’s untapped oil reserves. It makes the U.S. the majority owner of a giant new joint venture oil company that will hold 100-year contracts at the Venezuelan oil fields.

The key Venezuelan partner in the deal is Alejandro Betancourt, who controls the second-largest private oil company in the country. Betancourt, 46, has also been the subject of investigations in multiple countries into alleged money laundering and faces a Swiss warrant for his arrest.

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Trump also claimed the deal would come at no cost to U.S. taxpayers. But deal points reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with people who were close to negotiations as the deal came together suggest that for the plan to succeed in producing oil in the amounts the administration projects, the U.S. government may ultimately need to invest significant amounts. Ask The Post AIDive deeper

A list shared with The Post before the deal was announced noted 17 oil fields in which the U.S. would take a stake. Several of the fields lack any infrastructure or access to transport hubs to treat and move the crude. Those where such infrastructure does exist have fallen victim to years of neglect and theft of machinery.

Pumping oil from the fields could require investments of many billions of dollars and costly security plans to protect oil workers and production facilities in lawless and violent regions. The deal points reviewed by The Post say the U.S. government stake in the newly formed oil company will be split between equity ownership and guarantees that it will purchase oil produced by it at cost to refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

But it is unclear who would make the tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure investments needed before oil can be pumped from the largely dormant fields. Major oil companies have mostly seen such spending as too risky.

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Betancourt has become a key intermediary between the U.S. and Venezuela and has helped broker early contracts to get oil pumping fast in the country, The Post reported this week.

He has ramped up oil output by NABEP to nearly 200,000 barrels per day from 18,000 in just two years. In the past decade, he has also faced multiple investigations, in Switzerland, Spain and the U.S., into alleged money laundering.

U.S. officials this year have lobbied to resolve the case in Switzerland in a way that would avoid criminal charges and end travel restrictions against the Britain-based Betancourt, The Post reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

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There is strong opposition in Venezuela to ceding control of natural resources to the U.S. Revisions to the Venezuelan constitution may be required before the U.S. gains control of any oil fields, and the prospects of that happening are uncertain amid U.S. antipathy.