{"id":522103,"date":"2026-08-20T09:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T13:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/venezuela-advances-in-its-oil-opening-with-two-agreements-in-the-us-but-doubts-persist\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T13:36:15","slug":"venezuela-advances-in-its-oil-opening-with-two-agreements-in-the-us-but-doubts-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/economy\/venezuela-advances-in-its-oil-opening-with-two-agreements-in-the-us-but-doubts-persist\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela advances in its oil opening with two agreements in the US, but doubts persist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Houston (USA).-<\/strong> The two new energy agreements signed by Venezuela with U.S. companies continue the opening of its oil sector to private capital, although analysts warn that the return of foreign companies will be slow and that doubts about the security of investments still persist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Venezuelan Minister of Hydrocarbons, Paula Henao, <\/a>who visited Houston, the oil capital of the United States, this week, confirmed a contract with the producer Hunt Oil to recover production from two oil and gas fields in the east of the country and an alliance with SLB, the world’s largest oilfield services company, to conduct an integrated reservoir study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be interested in:<\/strong> New earthquake shakes Venezuela during the early hours of this Tuesday<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement with Hunt adopts the productive participation contract model, a scheme that Venezuela began to use during the government of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and that was subsequently modified with the reform of energy legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wouldn’t say this represents a new opening,” Bob Fryklund, chief upstream strategist at S&P Global, explained to EFE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Hunt is one of the first independent American producers to sign one of these contracts, so the agreement does constitute “a new step” within a process that was already underway, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contract contemplates the recovery of production in Caro and Carisito, two existing oil and gas fields in eastern Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fryklund highlighted that the project does not involve, for now, the exploration of new reserves. A good portion of the companies currently negotiating with Venezuela are looking to rehabilitate old discoveries or develop offshore projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From the point of view of oil and gas exploration, these are rehabilitation projects,” noted the expert, who stressed that the exploration of new fields remains practically paralyzed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alliance with SLB could accelerate that process by providing equipment, technology, and expertise to recondition wells and modernize infrastructure that has deteriorated after years of underinvestment, Fryklund added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company, formerly known as Schlumberger, has already worked in Venezuela and is one of the world leaders in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these advances, the country needs large-scale investments in oil facilities, pipelines, transportation systems, and electricity. “The journey is beginning, but it is not a bullet train; it is a local train with many stops,” summarized Fryklund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela could take time to overcome barrels <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

S&P Global estimates that it could take Venezuela at least until 2030 to sustainably exceed 1.5 million barrels per day, due to the deterioration of infrastructure and the time required to reactivate the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Production reached an average of 1.2 million barrels per day in July, almost 30% more than the 924,000 recorded in January, but despite the increase, it remains well below the highs of around 3.5 million barrels per day recorded during the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela will also have to compete for capital with dozens of countries that offer oil opportunities with more predictable conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president of the Texas oil company Latigo Petroleum, Kirk Edwards, believes that the small number of US companies that have finalized agreements evidences the caution that the country still arouses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Edwards, companies compare Venezuelan opportunities with projects in the United States and other markets that offer greater profitability and legal certainty. Added to this is the memory of the nationalizations carried out during the government of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fryklund agreed that they still need to improve transparency, the rule of law, the ability to repatriate profits, and staff security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela, he recalled, was among the five countries worst rated by S&P Global in terms of industry risk and, although it has begun to improve, it still needs changes to guarantee investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henao’s visit to Houston comes amid the push by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for companies from his country to invest in Venezuela, following the capture of former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro during a military intervention in January and the easing of sanctions on the energy sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuelan production reached an average of 1.2 million barrels per day in July, an increase of almost 30% compared to the 924,000 recorded in January. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston (USA).- The two new energy agreements signed by Venezuela with U.S. companies continue the opening of its oil sector to private capital, although analysts warn that the return of foreign companies will be slow and that doubts about the security of investments still persist. The Venezuelan Minister of Hydrocarbons, Paula Henao, who visited Houston, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":522104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[40230,110],"class_list":["post-522103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-united-states","tag-venezuela"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2bP1","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Captura-de-pantalla-2026-07-31-112639.jpg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["Economy"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Captura-de-pantalla-2026-07-31-112639.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}