Days after Trump announces Venezuela oil deal, White House fills in some of the details

WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday said it’s partnering with North American Blue Energy Partners as part of President Donald Trump’s push to tap into Venezuela’s oil industry, setting up a deal that will give the Pentagon a stake over roughly a fifth of the country’s vast oil reserves.

The Trump administration released more details about the agreement on Monday night, days after Trump announced what he described as the biggest oil deal in history. The sweeping deal has been met with skepticism from analysts who say it will take years to revive Venezuela’s production, but Trump and his aides are pitching it as a chance to develop a new oil giant in the Western Hemisphere.

As part of the deal, the U.S. is creating a private company as part of a joint venture with NABEP — a detail the White House withheld for days. NABEP, owned by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, is already the second largest operator in Venezuela behind Chevron.

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez is giving the company 100-year rights over 17 oil fields with proven reserves of 65 billion barrels. Many of those fields were previously owned by Russian or Chinese firms, the White House…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business