Exclusive-Brazil billionaire Batista shuttles between DC and Caracas, eyeing oil deals

By Luciana Magalhaes

SAO PAULO, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista met with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday, before and after he met in Washington with U.S. officials, whom he reassured that she seems ready to open her nation’s oil and gas industry to investment, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Batista family’s energy firm Fluxus, which has consolidated assets in Bolivia and Argentina since they acquired it in 2023, is evaluating business opportunities in Venezuela, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Fluxus and Batista holding company J&F declined to comment.

The shuttle diplomacy by the billionaire, whose family’s meatpacker JBS has a major U.S. footprint and has done business in Venezuela, underscores his access in Washington and capitals across the Americas. 

His meeting with President Donald Trump in September helped to thaw U.S. relations with Brasilia, Reuters reported at the time. Within weeks, Trump was touting his “excellent chemistry” with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and within months he dropped steep U.S. tariffs on many Brazilian goods, including beef and coffee.

Batista’s trip to Caracas on Friday, first reported by CNN Brazil, followed a visit in November with then-President Nicolas Maduro, according to two people familiar with the matter. Maduro was detained in a U.S. military operation this month to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.

This time, Batista took a private plane from Washington to Caracas to meet Rodriguez, and found Maduro’s former vice president willing to open the energy sector and uphold commitments to the United States, the source said. Batista flew back to Washington and relayed the information to officials there.

The Batista family’s recent foray into the energy sector is part of a wider diversification of their holdings since building JBS into the world’s largest meatpacker.

Last year, JBS pulled off a long-awaited U.S. listing and contributed $5 million to Trump’s inauguration committee through U.S. subsidiary Pilgrims Pride.

While U.S. oil majors have been wary about rushing back into Venezuela, given its history of nationalizations in the energy industry, smaller regional players are keen for access to the world’s largest declared oil reserves.

“It’s certainly an opportunity, but there are risks,” said Marcio Felix, head of an industry group representing smaller energy firms in Brazil, at an event on Tuesday. “If you wait until everything is clear, there will be no space left.”

(Reporting by Luciana MagalhaesAdditional reporting by Marta Nogueira in Rio de JaneiroEditing by Brad Haynes and Chizu Nomiyama)