Highlights:
Former US Congressman Adam Kinzinger has alleged that the US government entered into an oil agreement with a Venezuelan businessman who has faced money-laundering investigations, as the Trump administration seeks discounted crude from the South American country.
Kinzinger said North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), the company involved in the agreement, was run by Alejandro Betancourt, who has faced money-laundering investigations in Switzerland, Spain and the United States. He also claimed that U.S. Department of Justice officials reportedly asked foreign governments to close investigations into Betancourt.
Citing an investigation by ProPublica, Kinzinger said the agreement was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Under the arrangement, the US government would acquire a 35 per cent stake in NABEP's parent company. The report said the agreement was structured to make it difficult for future administrations in the United States or Venezuela to dismantle the enterprise.
Kinzinger, a Republican who represented Illinois in the House of Representatives, has clashed with President Donald Trump over several issues, including the president's foreign policy and claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
NABEP spokesperson Terry Wade told ProPublica that Betancourt had never been charged with any crime in any country and that claims against him were baseless.
Trump has said the agreement would secure America's energy dominance for the next century by giving the United States access to 111 billion barrels of oil, 65 billion barrels from Venezuela and 46 billion barrels from US proven reserves.
However, according to ProPublica, the text of the 18-page contract indicates that US purchasing rights expire after half that period. The underlying operating rights also appear to conflict with Venezuelan laws that limit oil concessions to 25 years.
The White House, State Department, Pentagon and NABEP defended the agreement, saying the new public-private venture would deliver meaningful and lasting economic benefits to both countries that could not be fully captured in a legal document.
“This historic deal marks a major step toward stabilising Venezuela's economy after years of hyperinflation and almost no new investment, while more than doubling the United States' oil reserves,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers was quoted as saying in the report.
Under the agreement, the United States has the right to purchase 20 per cent of NABEP's oil at a discounted price of $30 per barrel, according to ProPublica. However, the contract does not explicitly guarantee that Betancourt's company will pay the estimated $200 billion in royalties and taxes to Venezuela that the White House has said would benefit the country.
The reported price also excludes the cost of transporting Venezuelan crude out of the country. Much of Venezuela's oil is particularly thick and must be blended with thinner oil products before it can flow through pipelines. These blending materials can account for 20% or more of the resulting mixture.
According to ProPublica, the agreement does not include the potentially substantial cost of importing millions of barrels of these materials, raising questions about the actual cost of acquiring and transporting the oil.
Trump announced in August that his administration had reached a sweeping agreement with Venezuela that, if implemented, could give the United States access to vast quantities of the country's oil resources at cost.
The Venezuelan government said the agreement involved developing 17 oil fields with a stated potential of 65 billion barrels. It projected that the deal could attract $100 billion in investment to the country's oil industry and generate more than $209 billion in tax revenue for Caracas.
The announcement came nearly nine months after the U.S. military, acting on Trump's orders, captured Venezuela's then-president Nicolas Maduro and brought him to the United States to face federal narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking charges.
