WASHINGTON - Yesterday, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jack Reed (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ranking Member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright demanding details about the Trump Administration's efforts to enter into an oil deal with the North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) in Venezuela. The Ranking Members raised new questions about the legal basis and the rationale behind the deal. The Senators also questioned the Administration's claims that the deal would benefit the American people.

In the letter, the Senators note that NABEP has a limited track record in the oil industry, operating for only two years and only producing two hundred thousand barrels of oil a day with the capacity needing to be scaled up to over a million barrels a day. The Ranking Members highlight the checkered past of NABEP's head, Alejandro Betancourt, a Venezuelan oligarch who enriched himself during the Chavez and Maduro regimes and had multiple investigations into allegations of international money laundering. The Senators highlight how both analysts and a former Trump Administration official alike have refuted the claim made by President Trump that the plan will "substantially lower gas prices for all Americans."

"The proposed plan will not reduce high energy costs for Americans, and it risks undermining the Venezuelan people's transition away from a dictatorship. As Ranking Members of Senate committees of jurisdiction, we demand the Administration provide us and the American public with the documents that comprise the purported agreement, the legal authorities on which it relies and details regarding due diligence and long-term implementation," wrote the Senators.

"President Trump's own former special representative to Venezuela has publicly outlined his full-throated opposition to this plan, in part because the Venezuelan people did not consent to their unelected interim leader 'handing over precious natural resources to stay in power.' The plan is counterproductive to efforts to advance Venezuela's democratic transition and only creates new corruption risks for both the United States and Venezuela, while appearing to reward the kind of self-dealing that helped degrade Venezuela's oil sector in the first place," continued the Senators.

"The only likely short-term result of this agreement is to create a misleading narrative for the American people about lower gas prices and to further entrench in power the political and economic cronies of Maduro at the expense of the Venezuelan people and their democratic aspirations," concluded the Senators.

Full text of the letter is available HERE and provided below.

Secretaries Rubio, Hegseth and Wright:

We write to express our opposition to the Trump Administration's August 2026 attempt to enter into a deal with an oil company led by a Venezuelan oligarch under investigation for money laundering and tax evasion across multiple jurisdictions. The proposed agreement is unlikely to reduce high energy costs for Americans, and it risks undermining the Venezuelan people's transition away from a dictatorship. As Ranking Members of Senate Committees of relevant jurisdiction, we demand the Administration provide us and the American public with critical details of this purported agreement, including the agreement itself, the legal authorities on which it relies and details regarding due diligence and long-term implementation.

Based on public reporting, the purported deal will involve the U.S. government partnering with foreign oil company North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) to develop 17 oil fields reportedly containing 65 billion barrels of oil. Although the text of the arrangement has not been disclosed, the White House fact sheet and other public reporting suggests that the arrangement involves the Department of Defense acquiring a 35 percent equity stake in the parent company of NABEP and the Department of State having the right to purchase 20 percent of the oil produced by NABEP without generating any profit for Venezuela, with the right of first refusal for the remaining 80 percent of oil.

It is unclear why the American public should support this attempt to entangle the United States with a relatively unknown foreign oil company that lacks the capacity or credibility to develop oil fields of the magnitude described and whose leadership has faced international criminal investigations. Alejandro Betancourt, the head of NABEP, is a Venezuelan oligarch who amassed his fortune under the Chavez and then Maduro autocratic regimes. Although Betancourt has never been formally charged with a crime, he has faced multiple investigations for money laundering in Spain, Switzerland and the United States. NABEP itself has a limited track record in the oil industry, operating for only two years and producing only 200,000 barrels of oil per day, with no evidence that it has the operational and financial capacity to scale up and provide the billions in investments needed to bring the purported deal to fruition.

Although President Trump claimed the plan will "substantially lower gas prices for all Americans" and is supposed to help replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, analysts have argued that the majority of oil fields are nowhere near ready for production and that it will likely take up to a decade before global oil markets are meaningfully impacted and the American people see any tangible benefit. In fact, President Trump's own former special representative to Venezuela has publicly outlined his full-throated opposition to this plan, in part because the Venezuelan people did not consent to their unelected interim leader "handing over precious natural resources to stay in power." The plan is counterproductive to efforts to advance Venezuela's democratic transition and only creates new corruption risks for both the United States and Venezuela, while appearing to reward the kind of self-dealing that helped degrade Venezuela's oil sector in the first place. Such actions undermine U.S. credibility in Venezuela, and the region at large, in the long term. The legal basis for the purported deal is also questionable. The statute creating the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Capital does not explicitly provide authority to take equity stakes in private oil companies. The Office is authorized to issue and guarantee loans to private U.S. companies to develop specific critical technologies and bolster the American defense industrial base. This deal is inconsistent with that authority. The legal basis for the Department of State's role is equally unclear, specifically its intent to purchase offtake "to provide supply for military and other sensitive uses."

The only likely short-term result of this agreement is to create a misleading narrative for the American people about lower gas prices and to further entrench in power the political and economic cronies of Maduro at the expense of the Venezuelan people and their democratic aspirations. In light of our concerns and in the interest of transparency, we demand you provide our Committees with the following:

1. The complete text of any and all purported agreements between the United States, NABEP or its parent company, and/or the Delcy Rodriguez regime concerning the U.S. Venezuela oil arrangement described in the August 31, 2026 White House fact sheet before they are finalized, including any agreed upon production timelines and the specific terms of the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC)'s and any Department of State purchase agreement.

2. A list of all legal authorities the Trump Administration is using to support this purported deal. Please include the specific precedent and legal rationale for using the Office of Strategic Capital to acquire an equity stake in a foreign oil company and what precedent and authority the Department of State or any other federal agency has for establishing a long-term offtake agreement with a foreign private company. Please also identify what funds the State Department will use in order to purchase NABEP production and explain how the oil will be distributed or stored once it is purchased.

3. Information on what due diligence standards and vetting processes were used in negotiating the purported NABEP agreement, including any information concerning the Administration's investigation into criminal allegations against Mr. Betancourt.

4. An explanation of whether any member of the Trump family, donors to the Trump campaign and donors to other Trump family projects - through an LLC or another corporate vehicle - stands to benefit financially from the arrangement, including through the purchasing of any shares in NABEP or any of its subsidiaries or parent companies.

5. An explanation of whether any past or present member of the Trump administration, through an LLC or another corporate vehicle, stands to benefit financially from the arrangement, including through the purchasing of any shares in NABEP or any of its subsidiaries or parent companies.

6. A copy of the analysis and timeline that supports activities described in the August 30, 2026 Truth Social post by President Trump to use the Venezuelan oil to "fill up" the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, calling the crude a "Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States" and stating that the "topping out" process would begin very shortly.

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