PENTAGON HANDED 35% OF AN OIL COMPANY SITTING ON 65 BILLION BARRELS

🚨 The Pentagon now owns 35% of an oil company sitting on 65 billion barrels of crude — and it paid nothing for it.

CNBC reports that Venezuela's interim government granted North American Blue Energy Partners, headquartered in Barbados, concessions to 17 oilfields for a century. NABEP then handed the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital a 35% equity stake at no cost to US taxpayers, per deal details released by the White House this week.

The White House says the arrangement gives the US majority control over 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, roughly 20% of the 303 billion barrels Venezuela is thought to possess.

📈 Enverus told CNBC that if those figures hold, NABEP would be the second-largest oil company in the world by proved reserves, behind only Saudi Aramco. About four times the size of Exxon's.

The terms go further than equity. The State Department can buy 20% of NABEP's output at cost of production rather than market price, with right of first refusal on the other 80%. Washington can veto board appointments, and a majority of the board must be US citizens. One trade law expert at the Cato Institute called it a state-owned enterprise in all but name.

Why this company? Most US majors have stayed out. Exxon's CEO called Venezuela "uninvestable" in January. Chevron is the only US major active there and announced a separate $7 billion plan this week to more than double its production by 2031.

NABEP's CEO has faced money laundering and corruption allegations. He has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing. NABEP says the deal brings nearly $100 billion of investment and targets more than 1 million barrels per day.

Would you put private money into an oilfield the Pentagon co-owns?

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