Ballard Partners Registers to Lobby for Argentine-Owned Aldyl Energia on "Venezuelan Operations"; Former Waltz Chief of Staff Micah Ketchel Listed as Lobbyist

On a Lobbying Disclosure Act registration (LD-1) signed 2026-09-15 (a form-signature date; the form itself states an effective date of registration of 2026-08-01), Ballard Partners registered Aldyl Energia C.A., of Ezpeleta, Buenos Aires, as a client. The form describes the client as an “Energy services company,” lists the issue area as FUE (fuel/gas/oil), and states the specific issue as “Oil, Gas and Energy issues related to Venezuelan operations.”

Lobbyists listed. Brian Ballard, Scott Wagner, Micah Ketchel, and Michael LaRosa (marked “Lobbying limited to Congress”). For Ketchel the registrant reports covered positions of “Senior Advisor, State Dept. 2025; Special Assistant to the President & Senior Advisor to the NSA, White House 2025; Chief of Staff, US Rep. Mike Waltz 2019-2025,” plus House Veterans Affairs Committee staff roles in 2011-2012. These are the registrant’s self-reported titles; this pass did not find a second source for the State and White House titles (a Substack report describes him as a senior advisor to Waltz as UN ambassador and says Ballard announced him as a partner on 2025-11-19; see the Oct 15 entry).

Foreign entities disclosed (line 14). Aldyl Argentina S.A. at 95%; Habitar Partners SA at 90% (stated as “through 95% ownership of Aldyl Argentina S.A.”); and, on the supplemental page, Julian Santiago Arostegui. Per the filing, the Arostegui row is on the supplemental page; the Q3 LD-2 describes the three as “parent companies/and or ultimate owners” of the client. This entry records ownership as disclosed and nothing further about any individual.

What the client does in Venezuela (secondary, self-reported). In an interview published 2023-09-20, Arostegui, identified as president of Aldyl Argentina, said the firm had been operating about seven months at the Morichal Pesado field in Monagas State and had “integrated” with PDVSA’s work. No OFAC specific license for Aldyl was located; none would necessarily be public. A 2026 sequence of OFAC Venezuela general licenses (GL 46 of 2026-01-29 through GL 50A of 2026-02-18) is the relevant sanctions context; their wording as summarized by law firms covers services “from the United States or by a U.S. person,” and whether any covers an Argentine firm’s activity is not established here.

Dates, by kind. 2026-08-01: effective date of registration (as stated on the form). 2026-09-15: signature date of the LD-1 (registration posting date per desk check of the LDA record). The gap between the stated effective date and the signature is exactly 45 days, which is the statutory outer limit for registering under 2 U.S.C. 1603 as the desk recalls it; that statute was not re-fetched in this pass.

Follow-up: 2026-10-15–ballard-q3-report-aldyl-energia-200000-ketchel-removed-from-lobbyist-list.