US-backed oil company flaunts Venezuelan facilities

SAVING NEGLECTED MACHINERY: NABEP is repairing dozens of gas compression and power generation units abroad and refurbishing a power generation barge

• AFP, CIUDAD OJEDA, Venezuela

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The company at the heart of a multi-billion-dollar oil deal between Washington and Caracas is keen to show off renovations at Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, one of the world’s richest reserves.

The interim government authorized North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) to operate 17 oil fields via a deal with the US, which is set to receive 20 percent of Venezuelan reserves.

The Barbados-based firm is the second-largest private oil company in Venezuela and will operate 100-year concessions for 17 oil fields with proven reserves of about 65 billion barrels.

People work aboard a drilling platform operated by North American Blue Energy Partners in Bachaquero, Venezuela, on Thursday.

Photo: AFP

The company’s workspace in the northwestern town of Bachaquero overflows with new, mostly US-imported supplies.

Reaching one of Lake Maracaibo’s platforms requires setting sail from a Petroleos de Venezuela, SA dock in Bachaquero for a journey of more than one hour.

The lake’s formerly decaying infrastructure attests to the gradual collapse of the oil industry under Venezuela’s Chavista governments.

Eleven drills operate in the South American country, compared to more than 100 two decades ago.

NABEP said it will raise that figure to 41 by the end of the month.

Alejandro Betancourt, a businessman under investigation for alleged money laundering in Spain and Switzerland, runs the firm.

“Across Venezuela, we’re identifying heavy machinery worth saving after years of neglect,” he said.

His plan includes refurbishing a power generation barge, while dozens of gas compression and power generation units are being repaired in the US, the UK and the United Arab Emirates.

The White House said the US Department of Defense acquired a 30 percent equity stake in NABEP, authorizing it to purchase 20 percent of its oil at production cost.

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez governs under heavy pressure from US President Donald Trump and has opened the country’s mining, electricity and oil sectors to private investment at his demand.

The multibillion-dollar oil deal has garnered criticism for its secretive terms and neocolonial flavor.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has questioned the agreement’s opacity.

“This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants,” she said.

While visiting Caracas to oversee the signing of the accords, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright dismissed claims that Washington was “stealing Venezuelan oil.”

“I’ve seen those headlines. ‘We’re stealing Venezuelan oil.’ Of course, that’s not true at all,” he said. “The oil in Venezuela is indeed owned by the people of Venezuela.”