Trump Ally Harold Hamm Strikes Venezuela Oil Deal
Mr. Hamm’s company, Continental Resources, has signed a preliminary deal with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company to develop and produce oil.
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Mr. Hamm’s company, Continental Resources, has signed a preliminary deal with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company to develop and produce oil.
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· 4:35 min
Sept. 16, 2026Updated 1:53 p.m. ET
Harold Hamm, an oil executive who is close to President Trump, on Wednesday announced plans to drill for oil in Venezuela, joining a growing number of American oil producers planning to do business in the South American country.
Mr. Hamm’s company, Continental Resources, signed a preliminary deal with Venezuela’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, to develop and operate a 126,000-acre region in the country’s oil-rich Orinoco Belt, known as the Ayacucho 2 Block.
The agreement, which is not part of the deal that the Trump administration announced last month, was revealed at a meeting of energy ministers from the Group of 20 nations hosted by the U.S. government in Houston. It comes after Chevron, a much bigger U.S. oil company that is already operating in Venezuela, said it would more than double its production in the country over the next five years.
Mr. Trump has been pushing American oil companies to invest in Venezuela since U.S. forces captured the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.
Mr. Hamm, whose company is based in Oklahoma City, made his fortune drilling domestically. He has been a major player in the shale fracking boom that made the United States the world’s biggest oil and gas producer.
But many of those who made their fortunes in the U.S. oil industry are now looking abroad as they become more concerned about running out of attractive drilling opportunities at home. Continental in recent years struck deals to produce oil in Turkey and Argentina.
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Originally published by nytimes.com. Syndicated material does not necessarily reflect the views of Glamour Canada.
