Country Report
Venezuela upstream summary
Report summary
US imposed sanctions on Venezuela's oil & gas industry in 2019, which were slightly eased in 2023 - The initial sanctions and relevant waivers prohibited US companies from selling diluent to Venezuela and allowed only limited presence for operators in the country. Further sanctions were announced towards certain individuals and additional Venezuelan companies. Three years later, in November 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department announced an easing of sanctions that will allow Chevron ...
Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Key facts
- Location maps
-
Key companies
- Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA)
-
International and private investors
- Majors
- Other international companies
- Local companies
-
Geology
- Introduction
- Maracaibo basin
- Eastern Venezuela basin
- Barinas basin (Barinas-Apure basin)
- Falcón basin
- Tobago basin
- Gulf of Venezuela basin
-
Exploration
-
Licensing
- Current terms
- Early licensing
- Nationalisation and PDVSA's formation
- La Apertura (1991)
- First Operating Service Agreement (Marginal Fields) bidding round (1992)
- Second Operating Service Agreement (Marginal Fields) bidding round (1993)
- First exploration bidding round (1994)
- Third Operating Service Agreement (Marginal Fields) bidding round (1996)
- Orinoco Heavy Oil (Faja) licensing
- Contract migration (2000s)
- Additional Orinoco licensing
- 2001 gas licensing round
- Plataforma Deltana Gas: 2002/3 round
- Rafael Urdaneta Gas: 2005 round
- Delta Caribe Gas: 2006 round
- Trinidad and Tobago agreements
- Mariscal Sucre
-
Drilling
- Drilling activity
- Future activity
- Early drilling activity (pre-1975)
- Post-nationalisation drilling (1975-1990)
- Post-Apertura drilling (1990-Present)
-
Licensing
-
Reserves and resources
- Oil
-
Gas
- Onshore
- Offshore
-
Production
- Liquids
- Future production
-
Historical production
- Early production (pre-1976)
- Post-nationalisation production (1976-1999)
- Chavez-era production (1999-2013)
- Gas
-
Future production
- Pre-1976 gas production
- LNG
- Production since 2000
-
Infrastructure
-
Oil infrastructure
- Pipelines
- Refineries
- Upgraders
-
Gas infrastructure
- Domestic pipelines
- International pipelines
- Gas processing
-
Oil infrastructure
-
Policy and regulation
- Key legislation
-
Regulatory body
- Ministerio del Poder Popular de Petróleo y Minería (MPPPM)
- National Gas Entity
-
State oil company
- Corporación Venezolana del Petróleo (CVP)
- Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)
-
State participation
- 2001 Hydrocarbons Law
- Operating Service Agreements (OSAs, or Marginal Fields)
- Strategic Associations
- Association Agreements (Profit Sharing Agreements)
- 2000 Natural Gas Law
-
Licensing
- Introduction
- First Round Marginal Fields Service Contracts - 1991
- Second Round Marginal Fields Service Contracts - 1993
- Association Agreements - 1995
- Third Round Marginal Fields Service Contracts - 1997
- Strategic Associations - 1990s
- 2001 Gas Licences
- Plataforma Deltana Licences - 2003/4
- Rafael Urdaneta Project - 2004
-
Gas Policy and Regulation
- Gas Prices
- Transportation and Distribution Tariffs
- Gas sales
-
Fiscal terms
- Current fiscal terms
- Introduction
- Oil project terms
- Gas project terms
- Gas empresas mixtas terms (former OSAs)
- Marginal government take calculation
- Sample Cash Flows
- Historical background
-
Strategic Association (SA) Contracts
- 2008 Windfall Tax
- 2011 Windfall Tax
- 2013 Windfall Tax
Tables and charts
This report includes 33 images and tables including:
- Key facts: Table 1
- Country Map
- Reserves and resources: Table 1
- Reserves and resources: Table 2
- Map of Venezuela's Basins
- Maracaibo Basin Stratigraphic Column
- Eastern Venezuela Basin Stratigraphic Column
- Fiscal terms: Table 1
- Fiscal terms: Table 2
- Fiscal terms: Table 3
- Reserves and contingent resources at 01/01/2024
- Liquids and Gas Production 2021
- Map showing location of original exploration PSC awards
- Map showing location of marginal fields awarded
- Faja blocks
- Blocks Offered in the 2001 gas licensing round
- Blocks in the 2005 Rafael Urdaneta licensing round
- Drilling Activity by Well Type
- Reserves and resources: Table 3
- Production: Table 1
- Production: Table 2
- Liquid Production by Basin
- Production: Table 3
- Production: Table 4
- Infrastructure: Table 1
- Infrastructure: Table 2
- Eastern Venezuela Oil Infrastructure Map
- Western Venezuela Oil Infrastructure Map
- Infrastructure: Table 3
- Eastern Venezuela Gas Infrastructure Map
- Western Venezuela Gas Infrastructure Map
- Evolution of PDVSA to 1997
- GEM models
What's included
This report contains:
Other reports you may be interested in
Country Report
Venezuela upstream summary slides
To complement our more detailed Venezuela upstream summary we provide a slide-pack of the key issues in country.
$2,700
Insight
Good intentions, unintended consequences? Exploration policy and opportunities in upstream
Could recent regulatory changes be risking Colombia'a energy security aspirations? Could offshore gas potentially serve as game changer?
$1,350
Insight
Strategy update: Repsol's Strategic Update (2024 to 2027)
Repsol prioritises shareholder distributions in its Strategic Update for the next four years
$1,350