Aug 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. government plans to take a 35% passive stake in Venezuelan businessman Alejandro ‌Betancourt’s North American Blue Energy Partners, the Wall Street ‌Journal reported on Saturday, citing people involved in negotiating the deal.

The U.S. ​also plans to secure preferential rights to purchase 20% of the company’s production at cost, the WSJ reported.

The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital plans to structure the investment through penny ‌warrants that would yield ⁠the U.S. an equity ownership in the business without significant capital investment, the WSJ reported.

The report ⁠comes only a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the U.S. would take control of a ​fifth of ​Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Trump provided ​few details about the ‌arrangement, saying only that the U.S. had secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves through a partnership with private business.

Responding to a Reuters request for comment, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said: “The Office ‌of Strategic Capital (OSC) does not ​take equity stakes in private companies. ​Under its statutory authority, ​OSC’s role is strictly limited to providing capital ‌assistance in the form of ​a loan, loan ​guarantee, or technical assistance (including transaction structuring for developing and financing investments).”

The White House and North American Blue Energy ​Partners did not ‌respond to requests for comments outside regular business hours.

(Reporting ​by Sathvi G Bhat and Gnaneshwar Rajan in ​Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)