By: La Tabla/ Data Journalism Platform. August 19, 2026
On Tuesday, August 19, the Venezuelan government signed a productive participation contract with the American Hunt Oil Company to develop the Caro and Carisito oil and gas fields in the eastern part of the country. This contract comes as part of a new foreign investment initiative following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro in January.
This agreement, signed in Houston with the approval of senior Trump administration officials, marks the return of one of the most controversial oil dynasties of the 20th century: the very same that inspired the cunning magnate J.R. Ewing from the television series Dallas. Hunt Oil has a track record of operations in war zones, spills in the Peruvian Amazon, and direct connections with the top intelligence hierarchy in the White House.
Paula Henao, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, praised Hunt Oil as “a company with a recognized track record” and emphasized that this agreement would aim to “target the recovery of production” in the Caro and Carisito fields. The Venezuelan delegation, which included Vice Minister of Geopolitics Eduardo Ramírez and Pdvsa’s Executive Vice President Jovanny Martínez, participated in a forum alongside U.S. Undersecretary of Energy Kyle Haustveit. Just hours before, President Donald Trump had referred to the bilateral relationship as “excellent”.
However, Hunt Oil’s history is far from a straightforward story of energy cooperation. Its CEO, Ray L. Hunt, was appointed to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) on two occasions, an elite body with access to high-level classified information. In 2007, while serving on this board, his company signed an exploration contract with the Regional Government of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, despite the absence of a federal hydrocarbons law and against the official policy of the Bush administration. A congressional investigation revealed that senior State Department officials were not only aware of the negotiations but had encouraged them. Congressman Dennis Kucinich described the episode as “morally depraved”.
The environmental footprint of Hunt in Latin America is similarly dubious. In Peru, the company was the majority shareholder in the Camisea megaproject, where the pipeline experienced at least four spills of thousands of barrels of liquefied gas within just fifteen months of operation, harming indigenous communities in the Amazon. In 2005, the Peruvian government threatened to revoke the company’s concession. More recently, a journalistic investigation disclosed that Hunt’s gas export plant in Peru emitted, without authorization, 55.5 million cubic meters of greenhouse gases over more than a decade.
By welcoming Hunt Oil, Venezuela is not just securing capital and technology; it is bringing on board a company that has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to navigate legal frameworks, operate in conflict zones with Washington’s tacit approval, and leave an environmental and social footprint that is hard to erase. The signing of this contract is not a standalone event; it represents the arrival of the real J.R. Ewing’s playbook to the Orinoco Belt.