Foreign oil companies and investors are moving into Venezuela seven months after the US toppled then-President Nicolás Maduro, betting the world’s largest crude reserves are finally open for business.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has scrapped the rule requiring state-run PDVSA to hold majority stakes in joint ventures, allowing private firms to operate fields directly and keep more of the profit, while Washington has unwound sanctions to ease access to Venezuela’s 300 billion barrels.
But the skeptics have long memories: ExxonMobil, expelled in 2007 when its assets were expropriated, dismissed the country as “uninvestable” as recently as January.
Kpler, meanwhile, cautioned that new projects will take five years and colossal sums to deliver results from an industry hollowed out by underinvestment.
