TotalEnergies and Halliburton are among the latest international companies to sign agreements to explore for opportunities in Venezuela’s oil and gas sector.
TotalEnergies E&P New Ventures, which evaluates whether the French major enters or reenters a market, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Venezuela’s national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), establishing a framework for TotalEnergies’ return to Venezuela 5 years after exiting the Orinoco Belt.
PDVSA President Héctor Obregón and Francisco Javier Rielo, senior vice president of the Americas for TotalEnergies, inked the agreement at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas on 19 September in the presence of Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, the government news portals reported.
Specific projects or investments were not disclosed as the MOU is meant to first establish a legal and diplomatic foundation around which agreements on assets, business partners, and investments could later be negotiated.
TotalEnergies abandoned its flagship Venezuelan asset, the heavy-oil Petrocedeño S.A. joint venture in the Orinoco Belt, in July 2021 by transferring its stake to a PDVSA affiliate. It subsequently exited Venezuela’s remaining gas sector interests, including the YPergas S.A. project in the Guárico Basin and Plataforma Deltana Block 4 in the Atlantic Ocean.
Halliburton Also on the Hunt
Halliburton signed two MOUs on 19 September: one with Venezuela’s WESCA (West-Construcciones C.A.), a local engineering, construction, and oil and gas company focused on the Orinoco Belt and the Maracaibo Basin, and a second with Eneva, Brazil’s largest natural gas operator and an integrated energy company.
Under the agreement with WESCA, Halliburton will support field evaluation and development planning in Venezuela, the service company said in a news release announcing the signings.
The two companies currently work together to advance reservoir understanding and support development decisions through digital technologies and subsurface interpretation, Halliburton said.
Halliburton’s collaboration with Eneva aims to identify and pursue new development opportunities in Venezuela, building on the companies' existing relationship in Brazil.
"Halliburton has a long history in Venezuela and supports customers as they pursue growth opportunities," Francisco Tarazona, the company’s senior vice president, Latin America, said. "We look forward to working with Eneva and WESCA to advance development opportunities and support the country's evolving energy sector.”