How Venezuela’s Oil Went From Sanctioned to Selling, With Alejandro Betancourt López in the Middle

A year ago, Venezuelan crude was walled off from American buyers. Today it’s flowing under a U.S. deal, and Alejandro Betancourt López is the operator in the middle of the turn.

From Frozen to Flowing

For years, sanctions kept Venezuela’s oil out of U.S. markets. That changed fast. Nicolás Maduro was removed from power in January 2026, an interim government under Delcy Rodríguez rewrote the country’s energy law, and Washington began easing the sanctions. President Trump framed the reopening as recovered ground, telling reporters, “We’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago.”

The politics moved quickly, but a policy shift doesn’t produce oil. Someone still has to run the fields, and that’s where a homegrown operator already pumping crude became the piece the whole thing needed.

The Operator in the Middle

Betancourt’s company, NABEP, kept producing through the sanctioned years, which is why it landed the lead role when the door opened. It pumps about 200,000 barrels a day and now holds the operational lead across 17 fields, with a plan to push output toward 1 million within five years.

Venezuela keeps ownership of the fields and its sovereignty, taking about $19 a barrel, while the United States gains access to 65 billion barrels of reserves. The structure lets crude that was frozen out start selling again without the country handing over its resource, which is how Caracas sold the deal at home.

First cargoes are already reaching buyers. Going from sanctioned to selling took a political break, a rewritten energy law, and an operator who could turn the change into barrels. Standing in the middle of all three is Alejandro Betancourt López.

The speed of the turn is the part that still surprises people. A sector that had been sanctioned and shrinking for years reopened, drew a U.S. deal, and started shipping in a matter of months. That pace only worked because the pieces were already in place: a producing company, an interim government ready to rewrite the rules, and an administration looking to lock in access. Betancourt supplied the first of those. What comes next is slower. Rebuilding the fields, drilling the new blocks, and financing the work will take years, and the barrel count climbs gradually. It’s a fast headline followed by a long grind, and the second half runs through NABEP’s wells rather than any podium.