> Trump is a socialist, if not outright communist.

President Trump spent months declaring his ouster of Venezuela’s leader had secured the country’s oil for America. When U.S. energy companies resisted investing at the speed and scale he wanted, his administration devised an extraordinary solution to turn his vision into reality: make the U.S. government itself an investor.

The agreement announced Friday evening would transform the U.S. government from a broker of American oil investments in Venezuela to an investor itself.

It would give Washington a direct financial stake in a private company that would be granted centurylong rights to some of the world’s largest proven oil reserves—and tie the U.S. more closely to the unelected government that is granting those rights.

The private company, led by controversial Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, would have the opportunity to develop 17 oil fields said to contain 65 billion barrels of oil, or one-fifth of the country’s reserves. The Pentagon, in a striking expansion of its remit, would help finance the oil venture and reap the rewards of its future output. 

The U.S. plans to take a 35% passive stake in Betancourt’s North American Blue Energy Partners and would secure preferential rights to purchase 20% of its production at cost, according to people involved in negotiating the agreement.

The deal angered many Venezuelans and sowed confusion among some oil executives, and even U.S. officials, over what was agreed and how the arrangement would work.

For American oil companies pursuing potential investments in Venezuela, the idea of competing with a U.S.-backed private company with a stake in huge swaths of the country’s oil fields is daunting, people close to the companies said. U.S. officials said the state-backed company would be the second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco.

“Why is the U.S. subsidizing and building a major competitor to the U.S. oil patch?” said Ed Hirs, an energy economist at the University of Houston. “Lucy [of the Peanuts comic strip] will pull out the football once again—once Trump is out of office.”

The deal is also raising alarms within the industry about whether a new Venezuelan government could mount a successful legal challenge, and whether it might undercut new entrants’ confidence in making investments, the people said.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil … s-f054cdc2