Brazil’s Billionaire Batistas Poised for Venezuelan Oil Revival
(Bloomberg) -- The billionaire Batista brothers are eyeing a billion-barrel Venezuelan oil project that stands to benefit from US President Donald Trump’s planned revival of the South American nation’s energy sector.
The Batistas, who control the world’s biggest meatpacker, are discreetly positioned on the outskirts of Venezuela’s oil sector via the stake one of their business associates holds in the Petrolera Roraima project, according to people familiar with the situation.
Prior to the ouster of strongman Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, a commercial representative of the Batistas obtained a stake in a cluster of oilfields formerly operated by ConocoPhillips. Fluxus, an oil company owned by the Batistas, could join that or other petroleum developments in the country once the business outlook clears up, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing non-public information.
J&F SA, the Brazilian brothers’ holding company, said in response to questions that it doesn’t have any assets in Venezuela, and is closely monitoring events.
“Once a scenario of institutional stability and legal certainty is established, we will be ready to evaluate investments,” J&F said in an email.
The Batistas have taken a cautious approach to Venezuela since the US imposed sanctions because of extensive American investments that include chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., people familiar with their business strategy said.
Although Trump has said the Venezuelan government “stole” oil riches claimed by American companies such as ConocoPhillips during a nationalization drive almost 20 years ago, he also has evinced no desire to reverse those asset seizures. That indicates the Batistas are in pole position to help expand the country’s oil production while US and European drillers await stronger financial and security guarantees.
Since Maduro’s fall, Joesley Batista has emerged as a key figure in the post-Maduro transition. Last week, he flew from Washington to Caracas for a meeting with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
He returned with an optimistic report for US officials that she was open to foreign investment, especially in the oil and natural gas sector, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named.
The Batistas have deftly built ties with leaders across the political spectrum. Pilgrim’s Pride made the largest single donation to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee. Last year, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tapped Joesley Batista to negotiate with Trump for tariff relief.
Joesley Batista, 53, also is leveraging relationships cultivated in Venezuela in recent years to position the family as a first mover into what was once Latin America’s biggest oil exporter. In December, he traveled to the country to urge Maduro to step down in a peaceful transition.
The brothers’ ties to Venezuela go back more than a decade. The crown jewel of the family fortune, JBS, inked a $2.1 billion deal with the Maduro government years ago to supply meat and chicken at a time when the nation was experiencing acute food shortages and hyperinflation.
That contract was facilitated by socialist hardliner Diosdado Cabello, who is now Venezuela’s interior minister.
In 2024, Venezuela’s oil ministry awarded exploration and production rights for 25 years at the former ConocoPhillips project, Petrolera Roraima, to A&B Investments, which is led by Jorge Silva Cardona, a business associate of the Batistas. After A&B joined the project, daily output grew to 32,000 barrels between June and October, but has since plunged as the Trump administration began blocking oil exports from the nation, one of the people said.
The project was a marvel of modern engineering when it came on line in the early 2000s. Refineries known as upgraders converted the tarry oil into about 90,000 barrels a day of a lighter and more valuable grade of “synthetic” crude.
State oil company PDVSA holds a majority 51% stake in the venture while A&B has 49%. The Batistas also are exploring for opportunities in Venezuela’s mining sector and electrical infrastructure in the post-Maduro era, one of the people said.
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