Ciudad Ojeda (Venezuela) (AFP) – 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 recent deal with the United States, 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 approximately 65 billion barrels. The company invited AFP and other outlets to tour its Maracaibo facilities on Thursday. Its workspace in the northwestern town of Bachaquero overflows with new, mostly US-imported supplies. Workers’ uniforms in nearby Ciudad Ojeda blend in with the dark-blue company logo stamped around the office, a color that used to bring state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela to mind. That was until 1999, when socialist president Hugo Chavez then changed the company’s color to red to mark a “new PDVSA” era.
– ‘Neglect’ – Reaching one of Lake Maracaibo’s platforms requires setting sail from a PDVSA dock in Bachaquero for a journey of over an hour. The lake’s formerly decaying infrastructure attests to the gradual collapse of the oil industry under Venezuela’s Chavista governments. Eleven drills currently operate in the South American country, compared to over 100 two decades ago. NABEP says 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 in a statement. His plan includes refurbishing a power generation barge, while dozens of gas compression and power generation units are being repaired in the US, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. The White House says 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.
– ‘Stealing’ – Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez took power after US forces abducted her predecessor Nicolas Maduro in January. She 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 pair’s multibillion-dollar oil deal has garnered criticism for its secretive terms and neocolonial flavor. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, recently returned from exile, has questioned the agreement’s opacity. “This agreement does not reflect the levels of transparency that Venezuelan society wants,” she said last month. While visiting Caracas to oversee the signing of the accords, US Energy Secretary 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, adding that “the oil in Venezuela is indeed owned by the people of Venezuela.”
© 2024 AFP
