US President Donald Trump on Friday announced "the biggest oil deal in world history" – a new deal with Venezuela for "65 billion barrels of oil". Washington is rumoured to be working in partnership with controversial Venezuelan oil tycoon Alejandro Betancourt, who made his fortune under the Chavista regime.
Just a couple of months ago, Alejandro Betancourt couldn't leave his luxury London residences without risking extradition to Switzerland due to being wanted in connection with a case of embezzlement and money laundering.
But now the Venezuelan millionaire is poised to become a key figure in “the biggest oil deal in world history”, according to US President Donald Trump.
Read moreTrump announces 'historic' agreement for US stake in Venezuela oil reserves
It is very difficult to get a clear picture of the deal between Washington and Caracas announced by Trump on Friday because there is "no publicly available text of any agreement so far", said Tom Long, a Latin America specialist at the University of Warwick.
He added that the "Venezuelan government is being very careful not to publicly contradict the very expansive but probably incorrect claims that begin on social media".
But what we know about the deal seems ambitious because it grants the US the right to exploit “nearly 20 percent of Venezuela’s proven reserves – that is 17 oil fields where production is supposed to be increased”, explained Thomas Posado, a Venezuela specialist at the University of Rouen.
That amounts to 65 billion barrels from the South American country.
Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez said that this agreement is expected to bring $100 billion in investments to her country.
However, “the practical details of implementation and the reality of future investment” remain very unclear, Posado added.
The identity of Washington's alleged Venezuelan partner in exploiting the oil fields has yet to be officially confirmed. However, US media outlets have named 46-year-old Betancourt, the controversial Venezuelan oil tycoon, as the new intermediary between Washington and the Venezuelan government.
The Financial Times even went so far as to describe him as "Trump’s ‘viceroy’ in Venezuela".
Trump is banking on Betancourt being “a key player in the Venezuelan oil sector who appears to have the trust of Delcy Rodriguez", according to Long, adding that this position was previously "really dependent on relationships with the state".
Betancourt is the head of North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), Venezuela’s second-largest private oil producer.
Rodriguez has reportedly consulted him on several occasions for advice on the best way to revive Venezuela’s economy, according to several investigations by Spanish-language media outlets.
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Betancourt is a controversial figure with a long list of scandals to his name.
He has been arrested twice in the United Kingdom, where he has lived for several years.
The first time was in September 2025 at the request of Spanish authorities, who accused him of money laundering and tax offences.
He was released on bail and then arrested a second time two months later after Switzerland issued an international arrest warrant as part of an investigation into allegations of embezzlement from PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil giant.
However, he has never been formally charged in Venezuela, Switzerland or Spain. The United States has also persuaded Switzerland to allow him to travel freely abroad, according to The Washington Post.
However, his appointment has not been well received by Venezuela’s opposition, according to The New York Times.
While most acknowledge that Betancourt possesses genuine expertise in the oil industry, he is also “a POS (piece of sh*t) that comes along only once per generation”, Thor Halvorssen, a Venezuelan-born human rights activist, told the Financial Times.
In the eyes of many in Venezuela, Betancourt “embodies the archetype of those known as ‘bolichicos’, or the 'bolibourgeoisie',” Posado noted.
The term refers to Venezuelan businessmen “whose immense fortunes depend entirely on the goodwill and favours of the government, whether during the era of Hugo Chavez or Nicolas Maduro”.
“They are the upper echelons of the Venezuelan economy,” Long also noted.
Betancourt initially built his fortune in the electricity sector.
In the early 2010s, he founded the company Derwick Associates, which, “without having the slightest experience, secured at least 11 government contracts worth approximately $5 billion to build thermoelectric power plants, without any competitive bidding”, the Spanish daily El Pais noted.
He then turned his attention to Venezuelan oil before setting out to make his mark in Spain, where he got married in 2012.
Betancourt built a small empire there, investing in both luxury real estate and local startups, according to El Pais.
The US president is allying himself with a remnant of Chavism by choosing this “bolichico”. “This clearly shows that predation and access to Venezuela’s energy resources are Donald Trump’s priority, rather than promoting a democratic transition,” Posado said.
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It’s hard to say whether Betancourt will help Trump quench his thirst for Venezuelan oil.
According to the Financial Times, the goal would be to let him run a sort of “mini-PDVSA”, capable of developing the 17 coveted oil fields much more quickly than the massive state-owned behemoth.
But this dream of gaining access to 65 billion barrels of oil “is a product of Trump losing grasp of reality and his megalomaniac fantasies", according to Aslak Orre, a Norwegian political scientist and expert on Venezuela at the Chr. Michelsen Institute.
He added that, even "if one managed to magically ramp up Venezuelan oil production threefold, in order to reach the historically highest levels of daily production (which was way back in the 1970s), it would take exactly 50 years to get 65 billion barrels out of the ground".
In other words, according to experts, Trump’s promise is more like a publicity stunt aimed at convincing Americans that the US has found a solution to rising oil prices linked to the war in Iran.
But in the end, this agreement is most likely to benefit middlemen like Betancourt.
*This article was adapted from the original in French. *
