Oil Companies in Venezuela: Who Operates There and How Much They Produce (2026)
All of Venezuela’s oil belongs to the state, and it is pumped by PDVSA and the companies that partner with it. In 2026 the ones that matter most are Chevron (U.S.), Repsol (Spain), Eni (Italy) and Maurel & Prom (France), plus NABEP, the company behind the U.S.-backed oil deal. Behind them come Shell and BP (with recent deals, mostly in gas), ONGC (India) and CNPC (China). They operate inside a national output of about 1.15 million barrels a day (September 2026, OPEC), far from the 3.4 million of 1998 (Venezuela oil history).
How does a foreign oil company operate in Venezuela?
Until now the mold was the joint venture: a company in which PDVSA holds at least 60%, according to the EIA. The January 2026 reform of the Hydrocarbons Law added more options, according to Venezuelanalysis (citing Reuters):
- Royalties and income tax that used to be 30% and 50% can now be lowered at the executive’s discretion.
- Minority partners in a joint venture can directly run operations and sell the crude.
- Disputes can go to international arbitration.
- PDVSA can lease projects to a private operator in exchange for a share of the oil.
Eni signed the first contract of the new kind, a Contrato de Participación Productiva de Hidrocarburos (CPPH). More in Venezuela’s new hydrocarbons law (in Spanish).
Who is in Venezuela: at a glance
| Company | Country | Asset in Venezuela | 2026 figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chevron | U.S. | Petropiar, Petroindependencia, Petroboscán | ~250,000 b/d (all its JVs) |
| Repsol | Spain | Petroquiriquire (40%), Cardón IV (50%) | ~45,000 b/d (April) |
| Eni | Italy | Junín 5, Cardón IV (50%), PetroSucre (26%) | ~12,000 b/d at Junín 5 |
| Maurel & Prom | France | Urdaneta West (40%) | 8,558 b/d net |
| NABEP | U.S. | 17 fields | 223,509 b/d (October 19) |
| Shell | U.K. | Punta de Mata (Monagas), Dragon gas | framework deal, no figures |
| BP | U.K. | Cocuina-Manakin (gas) | memorandum of understanding |
| ONGC | India | San Cristóbal (40%), Carabobo-1 | no 2026 figure |
| CNPC | China | Sinovensa | no 2026 figure |
Chevron’s figure is for the full joint ventures, not just its share: of its percentages, only the 49% of Petroindependencia is in the sources. Each source gives a different date, so the figures cannot be added up.
Chevron: the biggest producer
Chevron runs three joint ventures with PDVSA: Petropiar and Petroindependencia, in the Orinoco Belt, and Petroboscán, in Zulia. Joint ventures with Chevron produce about 250,000 barrels a day together (Venezuelanalysis, March), and Petropiar alone makes 90,000 of upgraded crude. So far in 2026 its output is up 15%, according to Chevron.
On September 2 it announced that Petroindependencia (where it holds 49%) gets the Carabobo 1 and Carabobo-2-South-A blocks, and keeps Ayacucho 8, next to Petropiar. It plans to invest more than $7 billion over five years to more than double output to about 600,000 barrels a day (a target). It says it produces at under $20 a barrel, per Oil & Gas Journal. More in the Orinoco Belt guide.
Repsol and Eni: Europe in the west, gas and the Belt
Repsol signed an agreement with PDVSA and the Hydrocarbons Ministry on April 16 to raise output at Petroquiriquire (Repsol 40%, PDVSA 60%); the 2023 framework agreement (amended in 2024) brought in the Tomoporo and La Ceiba fields. Gross output is about 45,000 barrels a day, and the goals are +50% in 12 months and tripling in three years. It depends on PDVSA scheduling heavy-crude cargoes equal to that output. In September Repsol’s Venezuela operations manager, Ludwing Mercado, spoke of about 40,000 barrels a day in the west, and of at least 50% more as the goal (AFP). The two figures do not match and the sources do not explain the gap.
Eni has three fronts:
- Junín 5 (Orinoco Belt): a 25-year CPPH, signed September 2, with Eni as sole operator. Until then it was the PetroJunín joint venture (Eni 40%, PDVSA 60%). The field has 35 billion barrels in place and makes about 12,000 a day. Production started on October 28.
- Cardón IV (offshore gas): 50% Eni and 50% Repsol. Eni operates Perla, which covers about 35% of the gas Venezuela consumes. In March the two signed an agreement to keep gas output going through 2026.
- PetroSucre (Corocoro field): PDVSA 74%, Eni 26%. It also holds six mining licenses and a stake in Supermetanol.
Eni’s own output in Venezuela was 64,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2025, mostly from Perla.
Maurel & Prom: the French operator on Lake Maracaibo
Maurel & Prom holds 40% of Urdaneta West, in Zulia, through Petroregional del Lago (PDVSA holds 60%). Its share produced 8,558 barrels a day in the first nine months of 2026, 5% more than a year earlier, according to the company. That equals about 21,400 barrels gross for the field (our own math: 8,558 divided by 0.4). Sales resumed in June, with three liftings in the third quarter; wells have been worked over since March and a drilling campaign is planned for 2027. In September its executive César Álvarez said they expect to end the year at 23,000 barrels a day and that the initial plan had perhaps been too optimistic.
NABEP: the company behind the U.S. deal
North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) signed the August deal to operate 17 fields. It is private, and the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital holds 35%. It was producing 223,509 barrels a day as of October 19, according to El Nacional (Bloomberg and EFE). The contract is not public (the deal explained).
Shell and BP: gas
Shell signed a Framework Agreement and a Technical-Financial Alliance with PDVSA on March 5 for the Punta de Mata Division in Monagas, according to PDVSA president Héctor Obregón (EFE). Per Reuters, that division produced more than 400,000 barrels a day in the 2000s and about 90,000 today, and Shell would run it under the lease model (Reuters had it as planned; EFE’s note on the signing does not describe the model). According to the same source, Shell would lead the Dragon offshore gas project with Trinidad and Tobago’s state company NGC.
BP signed a memorandum on April 30 to develop the Cocuina-Manakin gas field on the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago, with more than one trillion cubic feet of gas to export as LNG from Trinidad. It also talks of collaborating on the Loran field. In February BP had asked the U.S. government for a license; the note does not say whether it was granted.
ONGC, CNPC and the Asian companies
ONGC Videsh (India) holds 40% of San Cristóbal and, with other Indian firms, 18% of Carabobo-1. On August 6 its finance director said it now has full freedom to work on its Venezuela projects and that it expects to sign agreements soon to operate two blocks under the new law (Reuters).
CNPC (China) still produces in the Sinovensa joint venture with PDVSA, but it stopped lifting Venezuelan crude in 2019, according to Reuters. Crude reaches China through traders and other state firms: about 470,000 barrels a day in 2025, per Vortexa. Reuters also mentions Sinopec and China Concord Resources, which planned to invest more than $1 billion and reach 60,000 barrels a day by the end of 2026. That is a plan, not output.
ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and the Russians
- ExxonMobil is not producing. In September it was negotiating a return to Petromonagas (formerly Cerro Negro), where it held 41.67% until 2007, per Reuters sources. Its upgrader would need major repairs. Exxon and PDVSA did not respond.
- Roszarubezhneft (Russia) has held 40% of Petromonagas since 2020 (previously Rosneft), per the same report. I found no 2026 figures for Russian companies.
- ConocoPhillips does not operate, but holds an $8.37 billion award against Venezuela for its 2007 expropriation. The World Bank’s ICSID rejected Venezuela’s request to annul it, per Reuters (January 2025).
Who can do business? The U.S. licenses
Almost all Western oil companies work under U.S. Treasury (OFAC) licenses. According to Mayer Brown:
- License 50A (February 18, 2026): authorizes six operators. Per AFP, they are BP, Chevron, Eni, Maurel & Prom, Repsol and Shell.
- License 52 (now 52C, updated by OFAC on September 14; Mayer Brown covered it on May 1): lets U.S. companies organized before January 29, 2025 trade Venezuelan oil, sign investment contracts and form joint ventures. Payments to PDVSA go into an account designated by the U.S. government, and the contract is governed by U.S. law.
- Left out of License 52C: PDVSA bonds and debt, equity transfers and governance changes at CITGO (who owns CITGO), entities from Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba, and those controlled by or in joint ventures with anyone from China. That is an exclusion from that license, not a general ban.
- Oilfield services: in February a license opened for support work such as geological mapping. SLB works for Chevron. Halliburton and Baker Hughes had scaled back, per Bloomberg.
Others who went to the Caracas oil forum (September 28 to October 1) without announcing deals: UCC Holding (Qatar), Hunt Oil, GeoPark and Siemens (AFP).
What is not known
- Exactly how much each one produces. The figures are of different dates and kinds (gross, net, targets) and cannot be added up.
- Whether the targets will be met. Chevron (600,000 b/d), Repsol (+50%), Eni and Maurel & Prom are plans. The sources name deteriorated infrastructure, power cuts and PDVSA delays as obstacles.
- The contract terms. NABEP’s and the fiscal terms of the new CPPHs are not public.
- The 2026 license status of BP and the Asian companies.
- Whether the U.S. licenses will last. They can be changed or revoked.
Total output, month by month: how much oil does Venezuela produce?. For the stock-market side (which of these companies are listed): Venezuela oil stocks.
The licenses that let them operate, one by one: Venezuela sanctions.
La mayor operadora: Chevron en Venezuela (en español).
How foreign companies invest: Venezuela oil investment.