President Donald Trump’s newly announced deal for a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves has some “sketchy” details that could come back to haunt him, according to a new analysis.
Trump announced Friday that the U.S. government and a private company would be given 100-year rights involving roughly one-fifth of Venezuela’s known oil reserves, which he declared was “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY.”
But Slate’s Ian Prasad Philbrick pointed to an unusual wrinkle in the arrangement.
“And there are other sketchy aspects, too,” Philbrick wrote Monday. “Trump’s initial announcement didn’t name the ‘private business’ the U.S. will partner with.”
That company has been named as North American Blue Energy Partners, Venezuela’s second-largest private oil producer, according to a New York Times report. It is controlled by the family of Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt López, Philbrick told readers, who has faced money laundering investigations in Spain and Switzerland but has not been charged.
“Despite those whiffs of corruption, the deal could let the Department of Defense acquire shares in NABEP,” Philbrick wrote, citing reporting from The Wall Street Journal.
Trump has argued the unusual arrangement will help replenish American oil reserves and bring down gasoline prices.
But Philbrick on Monday noted that any relief could take years.
“Venezuela currently produces only about 1 percent of daily global supply,” Philbrick wrote. “The cost of a barrel jumped after the U.S. and Iran resumed shooting at each other over the weekend, which suggests what’s happening in Venezuela is a minor factor behind what Americans are paying for gas.”
The deal could face other hurdles too. Philbrick pointed out that a Democratic White House could abandon the agreement, while legal challenges could also emerge in Venezuela.
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