Venezuela has signed deals with oilfield service major SLB and Hunt Oil Co. as part of efforts to boost investment in its key energy industry, Bloomberg reported, citing a TV statement made by the South American country’s oil minister, Paula Henao.
One of the deals involves development of two fields and the other is a framework deal with SLB for “services related to integrated reservoir studies throughout the country,” according to the statement.
The deal with SLB follows earlier reports about the oilfield services company sealing a long-term deal with the Venezuelan government to reverse a major decline in oil production and modernize the country’s oil industry.
“Venezuela’s oil and gas sector has substantial resource potential, and realising that potential will require technology, digital integration and long-term talent development,” SLB chief executive Olivier Le Peuch said in a company statement in June.
The focus of the modernization push would be artificial intelligence, the statement also said, aiming to digitally transform Venezuela’s oil industry using predictive models, connected data, and AI-driven workflows.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official said this week that about half of Venezuela’s oil exports are now going to U.S. refiners. “In the last couple of months, we’re seeing north of 500,000 barrels of approximately half of the production coming out of Venezuela is coming to the United States to the refineries that were built specifically for that crude,” Energy Under Secretary Kyle Haustveit said at an industry event, as quoted by Reuters.
Venezuela’s oil production currently stands at a daily average of 1.25 million barrels, Haustveit also said, adding that the United States was exporting over 100,000 barrels of naphtha daily to Venezuela to help boost crude production. According to a senior PDVSA official, production should hit 1.245 million barrels at the end of this month.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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