It took less than a month after US forces captured Nicolás Maduro for Wall Street to start drawing up term sheets. US investment groups are now forming dedicated funds to acquire oilfields in Venezuela, treating the country’s energy sector like a fire sale on the planet’s largest proven oil reserves.
The Trump administration has called on US energy firms to invest at least $100 billion into Venezuela’s rebuilt infrastructure. That number, roughly equivalent to the annual GDP of Ecuador, signals the scale of what Washington envisions. And the money is already moving.
The deals taking shape
The most concrete transaction so far involves Lionheart Capital. The firm has entered a letter of intent to merge its Nasdaq-listed SPAC, Lionheart Holdings, with Keo Energy, a company that holds assets in Venezuela’s prolific Maracaibo Basin. The combined entity would carry a valuation of approximately $1 billion, effectively creating the first Venezuelan oil company to trade on the Nasdaq.
Lionheart Holdings raised $230 million in 2024. That war chest is now being aimed squarely at a basin that was once among the most productive oil regions on Earth before decades of mismanagement hollowed it out.
