The Venezuela Oil Deal Is Just the Start || Sept 18, 2026
The recent series of U.S.-Venezuela oil deals is not quite as significant as it was made out to be.
The main highlights are Chevron's investment and the U.S. putting its stamp of approval on NABEP. While NABEP lacks much of what it takes to expand production, U.S. backing gives the company credibility to attract outside investment.
This is just the beginning of a long road to recovery, but it's better than nothing.
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Comments (16)
The only country with expertise in extracting heavy crude of the type Venezuela has, is Canada. And they may not be rushing to assist for various reasons.
Zzzz. Z s , ZZ s#$$
File this under "I'll believe it when I see it." The structural problems with Venezuela haven't gone away, and I'm not hearing about any improvements that would make this country worth the investment risk.
Our corrupt administration working with Venezuela's corrupt administration (which constitutionally can't give up control of the oil), to form a business run by a highly corrupt administrator with Russian ties and apparently no monitoring of the funds or certainty of where the money is going (according to Scott Bessant)? What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
topical Bloomberg article...here's the short version: Veteran oil executive Ali Moshiri says Venezuela is dragging its feet on his plan to invest as much as $2 billion in rebuilding the country’s oil sector, despite his having investors and capital ready to deploy. His firm, Amos Global Energy, is pursuing seven fields he says could produce roughly 200,000 barrels a day, along with up to $1 billion of repairs to Venezuela’s main oil-export infrastructure, but he argues PDVSA lacks urgency and that the current reopening strategy is too focused on short-term deals. Moshiri, who previously ran Chevron’s Latin American business and helped keep Chevron in Venezuela, also questions whether North American Blue Energy Partners has the operational experience to develop the 17 complex fields it has been given. Rather than easily reversible production-sharing agreements, he wants a formal joint venture with PDVSA backed by legislative approval, arguing that a durable Venezuelan oil recovery will require long-term capital, infrastructure rebuilding, competitive contracts and much more planning. --By Fabiola Zerpa
It's dragging its feet waiting to see how to exploit the "New Money" coming in! The corruption is mind-boggling and the US doesn't seem to be doing anything to put things in order.
... isn't there a VERY limited number of refineries that can handle VZ's heavy sour output? A bunch of older plants on the US Gulf Coast, then some in India and the PRC?
Here’s what my buddy Chat said about the topic: without displacing Canadian, Mexican, Saudi, Colombian, or domestic crude, the Gulf Coast’s ability to absorb additional Venezuelan oil is fairly limited. Realistically, the Gulf Coast could probably absorb another 200,000–300,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude on a sustained basis. More would require displacing other crude supplies, debottlenecking processing equipment, or making significant refinery upgrades.
I’m sure maintaining an imperial dominant system over Venezuela will definitely work this time long-term for the United States… Certainly treating Venezuela like a sovereign country with a normalized relationship in the vain of like Saudi Arabia is not in the cards
To build on that, from what I can see, no one in the administration or either political party appears to be engaged in serious long-range strategic thinking. Without that broader perspective, however, there is little recognition that we are stepping into a historical cycle that did not end well in the past. I hope I’m wrong. But if I’m not, how come there’s no public dialog and opportunities for input?
A funny auto subtitle at 5:03
Ha!
Meh
As Peter has pointed out in the past part of the problem is that the Chavez Government did set up a civilian militia and distributed assault weapons; the real militia probably does not reach the numbers advertised and we don't know their battle readiness or if they are willing to go ahead, particularly after January 3rd, or against whom, and they are not alone; outside Caracas anyone investing would have to deal with "Colombian " guerrillas and outright criminal gangs. Companies know that, and besides the legal reasons stated by Zeihan that is the other reason they are probably going slowly
Why did oil output drop during the Chavez and Maduro regimes? Can we expect to get back to output levels seen in the 80s? How and when, or why not?
Back in early 2003 Chavez, over national TV, fired about 18000 to 20000 PDVSA employees, about half the company's upper echelon payroll, then for the following years they overstated production numbers, since we have seen about 7 to 8 million Venezuelans, out of about 30 to 33 million leave the country, in the last 15 years, those that were fired have not been replaced, theft and graft have not helped either.