Venezuela offers silverfield production opportunities
Oil & Gas Journal · Rafael Sandrea IPC Petroleum Consultants Inc Tulsa; Martin Essenfeld EGEP Consultores SA Caracas ·
New hydrocarbon legislation introduced in 2026 has opened upstream opportunities for private operators to increase production in Venezuela. Venezuela’s oil production has...
New hydrocarbon legislation introduced in 2026 has opened upstream opportunities for private operators to increase production in Venezuela. Venezuela’s oil production has declined to about 1 million b/d today from a peak of 3.7 million b/d in 1970 (Fig. 1), despite more than 450 billion barrels of conventional oil discoveries across 320 fields. At the end of 2025, about 250-300 active conventional fields outside the Orinoco heavy oil belt were producing about half of Venezuela’s production.
The Eastern basin contains an estimated 9 billion barrels (Bbo) of remaining recoverable oil. The Western, or Maracaibo, basin remains Venezuela’s most prolific conventional oil province, and major producing areas still hold significant undeveloped resources.
Although much smaller, the Barinas-Apure basin contains lighter crude and offers redevelopment potential despite a steep production decline.
Read the full story at Oil & Gas Journal · All coverage of this story