ExxonMobil Signs Deal To Explore Renewed Oil Investment In Venezuela
ExxonMobil has signed a preliminary agreement with Venezuela's government and state oil company PDVSA to explore new oil investments, marking a potential return to a country it abandoned nearly two decades ago after a bitter expropriation fight.[1]
The non-binding memorandum of understanding, announced Monday in Caracas, will allow the US oil major and Venezuelan officials to examine upstream opportunities, likely focused on the Orinoco Belt's vast heavy crude deposits, which are associated with high greenhouse gas and methane emissions.[1] Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said she hopes the memorandum quickly becomes concrete contracts, while Hydrocarbons Minister Paula Henao highlighted plans to boost recovery from heavy and extra-heavy oil fields.
In January, Venezuela's political calculus shifted dramatically when US forces captured President Nicolás Maduro, and power moved to Rodríguez, who soon pushed through a sweeping hydrocarbons law that expanded operational control and adjusted taxes and royalties for foreign companies.[1] Shortly after Maduro's removal, President Trump summoned US oil executives to the White House and urged them to invest in Venezuela, a pitch ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods publicly rebuffed at the time by calling the country "uninvestable."[1]
The new law and a loosening of US restrictions have already enticed a roster of international players: Treasury licenses now allow BP, Chevron, Eni, Maurel & Prom, Repsol and Shell to operate, PDVSA says it has signed 61 agreements and is negotiating 44 more, and Chevron has committed $7 billion to raise Venezuelan output.[2] Consultancy Kpler told BNamericas that higher oil prices driven by the US-Iran conflict have further sweetened Venezuela's appeal for returning operators.[2]
ExxonMobil also brings a fraught history back into the country. Before Hugo Chavez nationalized its assets in 2007, the company held stakes in the Cerro Negro heavy-oil project, now called Petromonagas, and in the La Ceiba field.[3] Exxon pursued arbitration at the World Bank's ICSID tribunal and in 2014 was awarded $1.6 billion plus interest, an award Venezuela still contests, and in September 2025 it also won a separate US court judgment ordering Venezuela to pay more than $985 million in compensation.[3] As recently as October, Woods cautioned that while legal and fiscal work was advancing, Venezuela still had "a way to go" before new investments would be viable.[1]
For Caracas, courting ExxonMobil is part of a broader push to revive an oil sector still constrained by dilapidated infrastructure and a lack of drilling rigs despite recent gains. Venezuela's crude output averaged 1.136 million barrels per day in the third quarter of 2026, up 20% from a year earlier, but Baker Hughes counted only two active drilling rigs in August.[2] PDVSA president Héctor Obregón projects production will reach 1.3 million barrels per day by year-end, below Rodríguez's earlier 1.37-1.4 million target, and analysts at Rystad Energy estimate tens of billions of dollars and dozens of rigs will be needed in coming years just to hold or modestly grow output.[2]
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright hailed ExxonMobil's move as "a testament to President Trump's leadership," arguing that a country labeled uninvestable at the start of 2026 is now attracting one of the world's largest energy firms. Opposition figure Pedro Urruchurtu, a foreign policy aide to María Corina Machado, likewise called the memorandum a sign of Venezuela's potential and of progress attributed to Trump, even as some opposition leaders warn that leasing oil fields to US interests could clash with constitutional provisions reserving hydrocarbon deposits for the state. Delcy Rodríguez, celebrating the signing on social media, said Venezuela was "welcoming back" ExxonMobil and opening the door to cooperation in both existing fields and new areas of development, a message that sits uneasily alongside long-running tensions with Exxon over its massive oil holdings just across the border in Guyana, where a territorial dispute with Venezuela centers partly on offshore reserves.[2]
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📊 Relevant Data
According to OPEC secondary sources (independent estimates), Venezuela's crude output averaged 1.136 million b/d in Q3 2026, up 20% from 943,000 b/d in Q3 2025; September output was 1.150 million b/d, below the 1.206 million b/d the government itself reported to OPEC.
Venezuela's Q3 oil output up 20% as rigs, infrastructure cap further gains — BNamericas
Baker Hughes counted only two active drilling rigs in Venezuela in August 2026. Rystad Energy projects output could reach about 1.6 million b/d in 2028 and 1.8 million b/d in 2030 but says that would need about 50 rigs in 2028 and almost 80 in 2030, and it estimated in January that $52 billion would be needed through 2040 just to hold output at 1.1 million b/d.
Venezuela's Q3 oil output up 20% as rigs, infrastructure cap further gains — BNamericas
PDVSA president Héctor Obregón said on Oct. 9 that PDVSA expects to end 2026 at 1.3 million b/d. Delcy Rodríguez had set a 1.37-1.4 million b/d year-end target in May, which Kpler (projecting 1.3 million) called somewhat optimistic given the lack of rigs and deteriorated infrastructure. BNamericas also reports that Venezuelan opposition leaders argue leasing fields to U.S. interests may conflict with the constitution, which assigns ownership of hydrocarbon deposits to the state.
Venezuela's Q3 oil output up 20% as rigs, infrastructure cap further gains — BNamericas
📌 Key Facts
- On Monday, November 9, 2026, ExxonMobil announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA to examine potential upstream oil opportunities.
- The MOU is non-binding and follows Venezuela’s 2026 petroleum law overhaul that expanded operational control and adjusted taxes and royalties for foreign oil companies.
- ExxonMobil left Venezuela in 2007 after Hugo Chavez nationalized its assets and later won a U.S. court judgment in September 2025 ordering Venezuela to pay more than $985 million in compensation.
- Energy analysts say ExxonMobil is likely eyeing heavy crude projects in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, which are associated with high greenhouse gas and methane emissions.
- ExxonMobil also has large oil investments in neighboring Guyana, where Venezuela has a long-standing territorial dispute tied partly to offshore oil rights.
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