Oil Exec Ridicules Trump’s $100B Plan With Brutal Response

MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images Oil executives and Venezuela experts alike are scoffing at President Donald Trump’s $100 billion scheme to ramp up oil production, casting doubt on whether the deal will yield meaningful crude.

The White House rolled out the arrangement this week, securing a 35 percent stake for the federal government in North American Blue Energy Partners, an oil outfit selected to drill in Venezuela.

“F--k all, what is this?” an anonymous high-ranking oil executive told Politico .

“This thing is way too big for a company with no capabilities and no credibility.” It is the latest instance of the Trump administration snatching an equity stake in a private enterprise.

The agreement promises the U.S.

“preferential access” to 20 percent of the oil harvested, strictly at cost.

The private firm, known as NABEP, gets a 100-year lease for 17 Venezuelan oil fields containing roughly 65 billion barrels of reserves, according to a White House fact sheet.

Beyond its 35 percent corporate stake, the U.S. gets a guaranteed 20 percent slice of production and right of first refusal for the rest.

Trump and congressional allies have hyped Venezuelan crude imports as a quick remedy for sky-high fuel prices hitting American voters after Trump started a war with Iran on Feb.

28.

Industry veterans are not buying the hype, warning that the targeted fields will take years to develop.

They also appear to have little faith in the company being handed such a tall task.

“Investing in one company could be a starting point, but I think it needs a bigger approach,” said Alejandro Sucre, a Caracas-based investor pitching an energy and mining fund.

“You’re not going to give 65 billion barrels of reserves to one company, right? That doesn’t make any sense.” NABEP, a Barbados-registered company, has expanded into one of Venezuela’s largest private oil operators.