CARACAS, (Reu-ters) – Venezuela’s National Assembly yesterday began discussing a proposal to extend through 2047 a contract between state oil company PDVSA and U.S. company Chevron to operate a joint venture in the country’s largest producing area.
PDVSA and Chev-ron have four joint ventures in Venezuela that are producing some 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude.
The companies are requesting an extension for Petropiar in the Orinoco Belt, the partnership that produces the most oil, Venezuela’s deputy oil minister, Elianny Palencia, said during a presentation at the National Assembly in Caracas.
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The extension for Petropiar will apply for the period 2033-2047, once the current association expires, under a plan to drill up to 386 wells in the area, according to the document presented to the National Assembly, seen by Reuters.
During the 15-year extension, crude production is set to increase to 150,000 bpd from current output of about 110,000 bpd. About $2.39 billion in investment and another $8 billion in operational expenses were planned as part of the request, according to the deputy minister’s presentation.
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The National Assembly is expected to continue discussing and approve the partnership extension in the coming days.
PDVSA and Chevron last year won approvals for similar 15-year extensions for two other joint ventures. An extension of the fourth joint venture is not yet planned.
All the joint ventures produce and export crude under a license granted by the U.S. Treasury Department to Chevron in late 2022 as an exemption to the U.S. sanctions on the South American country. But more investment is still needed to reach production levels before oil sanctions were first imposed in 2019.
Venezuela’s crude output is approaching 1 million bpd, said oil minister Pedro Tellechea last week. In 2023, the country’s production averaged 783,000 bpd, and rose to 864,000 bpd in the first quarter, according to figures reported to OPEC.
