The Trump administration secured a major energy agreement with Venezuela on August 28, 2026, granting private company North American Blue Energy Partners a one-hundred-year concession over seventeen oil fields totaling sixty-five billion barrels of proven reserves. In return, the United States acquires a thirty-five percent stake in NABEP’s parent company through the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital, along with the right to purchase twenty percent of production at cost. The production target is set at five hundred thousand barrels per day by the end of 2028, compared to approximately two hundred thousand barrels currently. However, many fields located in the Lake Maracaibo basin are considered mature, degraded, and lacking infrastructure, raising questions about the feasibility of these ambitious targets. Significant discrepancies also exist between the two parties regarding the exact duration of the concession and the amount of investment required, with the United States citing one hundred years versus twenty-five years on the Venezuelan side, and investment estimates ranging up to one hundred billion dollars. Washington is using this deal to counter the growing influence of Russia and China in Latin America’s energy sector.
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