President Donald Trump has described the agreement granting the US control of strategic Venezuelan oil fields as "the biggest in history," while his administration presents the venture as an opportunity to oversee corruption in the country’s troubled oil industry. Production and sales from 17 fields containing about 65bn barrels of crude will be overseen by North American Blue Energy Partners, or Nabep, a little-known Barbados-registered company. Its chairman, Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López, is a 46-year-old Venezuelan businessman estimated to be worth around $2.6bn (£1.9bn), whose fortune came through government contracts, oil ventures and international acquisitions. Betancourt has faced investigations and allegations related to corruption and money laundering, but has denied wrongdoing, has not been charged and has never been convicted. The US says it selected him for his oil-production record, lack of a current US investigation and support for the opposition. His ties to Juan Guaidó and US officials, and his reported role as an intermediary after the 3 January military operation that resulted in Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores being seized, have shaped his relationship with Washington. Delcy Rodríguez, now interim president of Venezuela, has defended him, while critics question his business record and the accuracy of Nabep’s reported output.