Florida businessman takes advantage of oil and the Venezuelan political crisis

In accordance with public records, Sargeant III is a 67-year-old Florida native, billionaire, former Marine Corps combat pilot and owner of an oil and asphalt transportation company whose global businesses include aviation companies and an oil refinery.

On March 29, the Donald Trump administration informed Global Oil Terminals, part of a Florida conglomerate owned by Sargeant III, that it would lose its authority to operate in Venezuela, effective May 27.

According to an investigation by the news site Armando.info, the deactivation of the United States license that allowed Chevron to operate in Venezuela, which expired on May 27, led the Nicolás Maduro administration to seek to extract crude oil for sale, thereby easing conditions for investors.

This scenario would be favorable for the expansion of Harry Sargeant III's business ventures: according to journalistic work by Armando.info, the magnate created two "corporate fronts" in April 2024, through extensive contacts with the Venezuelan goverment and the Venezuelan-born Alejandro Betancourt as a partner. The latter is mentioned when discussing the corruption scheme at his company, Derwick Associates, and the multimillion-dollar contracts to address the 2010 electricity crisis, a crisis that has worsened in Venezuela in recent years.

“Any Venezuelan who is familiar with the oil sector knows who Harry Sargeant III is. That is, the magnate owns part of a business that covers Chevron, the second-largest company in the United States and the third-largest in the world. Sargeant III manages a very small sector of the oil business, which is asphalt, and what's happening is that he's seen an open shift in Venezuela, where serious companies have fled because there's no working environment with all the American sanctions and tariffs,” Venezuelan expert Evanan Romero told DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS.

The analyst says that Harry Sargeant III's grandfather started the business of preheated barges for transporting asphalt to highways.

"Then, the business continued with his father, then with his brothers, and he fell out with them. Since I've been in the oil business for 63 years, I've obviously known the magnate for many years; I've never done business with him. I saw him at many toasts in Houston, the kind that oilmen hold. He's more aggressive and has seen an opportunity to make money in Venezuela, and anyone can see that in a country that's desperate," he says.

Romero also points out that "Nicolás Maduro's dictatorship" doesn't help the reputation of anyone who works with them. "In that context, Harry Sargent III has seen opportunities and is trying to get involved in some joint ventures. He's looking to work with Chavismo's "in-house" influencers, with the Derwick group, while serious companies are on guard," he stated.

According to investigations reported by Armando.info, the companies registered by the Palm Beach magnate last year established branches in Caracas and signed several Productive Participation Contracts (CPPs) with the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

This is a system created by the regime based on the so-called Anti-Blockade Law of 2020 and according to the parameters developed by Delcy Rodríguez, Vice President of the Republic and Minister of Petroleum.

Expert Romero indicates that the CPPs will not bring fundamental changes to the Venezuelan oil industry. "They will add some money, especially now that oil prices are rising due to the war between Israel and Iran, and it will surely be productive, but we also cannot say how many more months it will take and when political change will be achieved," he states.

He adds that these contracts are illegal because they are based on an "absolutely unconstitutional" law.

Risks in Venezuela

Evanan Romero questions the Venezuelan magnate's association with businessman Alejandro Betancourt, warning him: "The day there's political change in Venezuela, he'll have to hide in the Himalayas. He can't be in the country: Him and all the others who make up the so-called 'bolichicos' owe the Venezuelans a fortune."

In Chavista Venezuela, the elite of well-connected young people involved in business with the regime have been dubbed the "bolichicos." Romero emphasizes that Betancourt and his group are interested in associating "with a well-established firm like Sargeant III, because it gives them some name and reputation".

However, he points out that Harry Sargeant III is entering a decline in his corporate role because "he's risking the short term, which looks very good, with the medium and long term."

At the same time, Romero, committed to the struggle of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and her government program, says he's not worried about the US magnate's incursion into Petrocedeño, a PDVSA operator dedicated to the exploration, extraction, production, upgrading, and marketing of crude oil.

He adds that this incursion will not last: "Right now, they're doing their business, they're going to accumulate, but their opportunities only arise during the Maduro administration. In a decent democratic government, Sargeant III will cancel his chances in Venezuela forever."

Against the opposition

Another oil expert, who asked DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS to remain anonymous, says that Harry Sargeant III's company has been entering and exiting the Venezuelan oil agency PDVSA for years in the asphalt business. He points out that "it was always a company with which there were problems, even since the pre-Chávez era."

He also asserts that, in 2019, the American businessman also saw an opportunity to make a big deal with the Italian-Venezuelan businessman Wilmer Ruperti: they signed a contract, and two weeks later, the oil sanctions arrived, scuttling the deal.

"Then, Sargeant began to see the 2015 National Assembly and the tough opposition as his enemies in Juan Guaidó's interim government," he recalled.

A "pugilato" (some kind of fight) then began, he describes, during which the oil magnate invested money in lobbying and sought out agents who began to operate and act against the four-year interim government in Venezuela. He points out that the oil companies Chevron, Repsol, Eni, and the bondholders were working in the same direction as Sargeant.

This person familiar with the oil business, who was linked to PDVSA for many years, points out that the Venezuelan opposition is confronting the Maduro regime and its entire apparatus, its international allies, the normalizers, but also "the foreigners who have entered the game." And in this last group, he includes Florida magnate Seargent III.

"They see opportunity in two things: Venezuela's resources and the regime's desperation."

This expert also warns that the Vnezuelan government needs to monetize its wealth and is willing to do business with anyone who wants to do business with it. This entails assuming reputational risk, legal risk, and economic risk. "That's where Harry Sargeant III comes in," he points out.

The analyst also asserts that, in order for the magnate to reach an agreement with Petrozamora, "he must first reach an agreement with Alejandro Betancourt, who is holding on to what he had left there."

License Policy

Another aspect highlighted by the analyst, who spoke with DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS on condition of anonymity, is that President Trump has been consistent in his policy regarding Chevron's license in Venezuela, which expired last month by order of the White House.

"President Trump, who imposed the oil sanctions during his first administration, has never said that it was a mistake or that Venezuelan oil is necessary; he has never said that the licenses are important, but quite the opposite: 'We're swimming in oil.' He has said that Maduro's back was against the wall and Joe Biden gave him the licenses," he points out.

The expert says that Trump "has been more consistent on the issue of the licenses than on the issue of María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, on which he believes has been quite terse."

FUENTE: Con información de DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS/Armando Info/ Transparencia Venezuela