In Venezuela's Murky Oil Industry, the Deal that Went Too Far

Saab denies having anything to do with Trenaco. Neither Swiss corporate records nor hundreds of pages of Colombian registry records obtained by Reuters specify who owned Trenaco.

"I am not and have never been an employee or shareholder in the company that you mention and for that reason I have nothing to say," Saab told Reuters in an exchange on the Whatsapp message service. He did not respond to a detailed set of follow-up questions.

His lawyer, Colombian attorney Abelardo de la Espriella, said Trenaco executives had approached Saab to "speak about business" but Saab had no involvement with the company.

Interviews and other evidence suggest otherwise. Four senior executives of the now-defunct company told Reuters that Saab was in full control of Trenaco. They showed Reuters internal Trenaco correspondence and audio files exchanged via WhatsApp in which Saab participated. Reuters authenticated Saab's number by successfully contacting him on the one used in the WhatsApp conversation.

The four Trenaco executives say the company was run by Saab and two other men: Carlos Gutierrez, the son of a Colombian agricultural baron, and fellow Colombian businessman Alvaro Pulido.

The trio took over the management of the company between 2012 and 2014, when Trenaco was seeking capital, the sources said. Details of the past and current ownership structure are obscure.

Gutierrez did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to contact Pulido.

Money-Laundering Probe

Separately, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been investigating companies owned by Saab and Pulido on suspicion of laundering money from illegal drug trafficking operations, mostly cocaine from Colombia, a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters. The status of that investigation is unclear and it is possible that no charges will result.

Saab didn't respond to a question about the DEA inquiry. Reuters was unable to contact Pulido.

A PDVSA document from last year put the Trenaco project's price tag at some $4.5 billion, though people familiar with the matter said the value was later reduced.

Once the PDVSA tender was published in August, Schlumberger, Halliburton and Weatherford requested an extension to the roughly two weeks allowed for proposals, the PDVSA document shows. Of the three firms, only Schlumberger ultimately submitted an offer, and it was disqualified by the tender committee.

The Schlumberger proposal was shot down because it "did not accept the conditions and terms of the type of contract," the document notes, without elaborating, and because Schlumberger's proposed financing scheme, which appeared to involve paying off dividends that PDVSA owes to the joint ventures, was deemed inadequate.

At a time of low oil prices, sources at foreign companies said, PDVSA was keen that the contractor finance the project itself, as Trenaco had proposed.

Schlumberger declined to comment. Halliburton said it had "no additional information to add." Weatherford did not respond to a request for comment.