Who is Alejandro Betancourt, the colourful oil baron behind US-Venezuela oil deal? - BBC News BBC Homepage Skip to content Accessibility Help Your account Home News Sport Earth Reel Worklife Travel Culture Future Music TV Weather Sounds More menu More menu Search BBC Home News Sport Earth Reel Worklife Travel Culture Future Music TV Weather Sounds Close menu BBC News Menu Home Climate World UK Business Tech Science Entertainment & Arts Health In Pictures More BBC Verify Newsbeat World Africa Asia Australia Europe Latin America Middle East US & Canada Who is Alejandro Betancourt, colourful oil baron behind US-Venezuela oil deal? Image source, Daniel Arce López/BBC Image caption, Alejandro Betancourt's name is familiar to many Venezuelans By Juan Francisco Alonso BBC News Mundo Published 3 September 2026 President Donald Trump has called the deal granting the US control of strategic Venezuelan oil fields "the biggest in history". North American Blue Energy Partners (Nabep), a company little known outside the South American country, will oversee the production and sale of 17 oil fields containing about 65bn barrels of crude. The agreement has raised eyebrows to say the least. And at the heart of it is Alejandro Betancourt López, the Venezuelan oil baron who heads the Barbados-registered firm. The 46-year-old has a history of doing business with the Venezuelan government since the time of the late President Hugo Chávez. But he has also found himself under investigation in five different countries. He has previously denied wrongdoing and has never been convicted of a crime. So who is the fixer picked to deliver on Trump's oil abundance plan? Image source, Gerard SIOEN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Image caption, Betancourt's firm Derwick Associates won contracts to build 11 new power plants The 'bolichicos' Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López was born in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas in February 1980 into a middle-class family. A graduate of Suffolk University in