PDVSA aligned with Machado’s proposals for Venezuela’s oil industry: advisor

Venezuela's state oil company is aligned with the proposals of longtime opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, Juan Fernández, an advisor to Machado's oil team, said Jan. 13.

PDVSA is "very much aligned with our proposal, which obviously looks to the medium and long term," said Fernández, a Miami-based analyst.

Machado's proposal for the Venezuelan oil sector includes the downsizing of PDVSA, with assets transferred to private investors, opening all prospective acreage to exploration, and creating a regulatory agency independent of the state oil company.

"In conclusion, the proposals for PDVSA are very much in line with our proposal, which obviously looks to the medium and long term," Fernández said.

This proposal had been presented by Fernández to international business leaders at the S&P Global Energy CERAWeek event held in Houston in 2025.

US and international oil executives offered differing pledges on investing in Venezuela's oil industry during a Jan. 9 White House meeting with President Donald Trump, with some promising rapid increases in production and presence.

Machado, who was barred from running in Venezuela's 2024 election, is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump on Jan. 15.

Shortly after the US seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3, Trump initially dismissed Machado as a potential transitional leader, as he called on major oil companies to invest in rebuilding Venezuela's oil industry.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, late Jan. 13 offered her own idea for Venezuela's oil revenues. In televised comments, Rodriguez said "every drop of oil will be allocated to hospitals, to the maintenance of health infrastructure and equipment." Rodriguez had been Venezuela's vice president under Maduro before his ouster.

Need for certainty

However, major US oil companies have said they would need greater legal certainty and guarantees for the security of their employees to invest meaningfully in Venezuela.

"PDVSA's partners agree on the need for structural reforms so that investments are accompanied by legal certainty and investment protection between both countries," Fernandez said.

"There is a need for a new organic law on hydrocarbons, but in the meantime, the scheme of license 41 could be applied, Fernández added.

In 2025, License 41 issued by the Treasury Deparatment's Office of Foreign Assets Control allowed Chevron to resume operations in Venezuela, but with the limitation that PDVSA would not receive any profit from crude oil sales or taxes.

"PDVSA could even transfer its excess stake in the joint ventures, while maintaining the majority shareholding as stipulated by current law," Fernández said.

According to Fernandez, PDVSA's production and participation contracts granted to international investors between 2024-2025, under the Anti-Blockade Law, could continue, but possibly modified towards a profit-sharing model and a new tax framework.

"Chevron, Repsol, and ENI have an advantage because they are already operating in the country," he said.

Chevron is able to boost oil production in Venezuela by "about 50% in the next 18 to 24 months ... just leveraging what's on the ground," the company's vice chairman, Mark Nelson, said Jan. 9.

Chevron produces around 244,000 b/d through its three JVs: Petroboscan, Petropiar and Petroindependencia.

"At Petroboscán, there is still room to increase production, a narrow margin, but it exists," said a Chevron official on Jan. 12 who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Petropiar is at 50% of its capacity because the upgrader requires major maintenance, something that hasn't been done for more than six years. If it carries out that maintenance work and has a guaranteed market for the upgraded Special Hamaca Blend crude, it can double its current production."

At Petroindependencia, a project in early production, Chevron wants to increase its equity stake from 25%, the official added.

Joint ventures

PDVSA also has JVs with North American Blue Energy Partners, Repsol, Petro Romaina, China National Petroleum Corp. and Russian interests.

"In the case of CNPC, it's important to consider that Venezuela has a considerable debt with China," a PDVSA official familiar with JV operations said Jan. 12, on the condition of anonymity. "If the United States is going to take 100% of the production from those companies, it must take into account that CNPC is entitled to 40% of that production. If the sale of that crude oil is used to amortize that debt, we believe CNPC will agree to negotiate."

Spain's Repsol, for its part, has a 40% stake in the Petroquiriquire Occidente joint venture with PDVSA.

Repsol CEO Josu Jon Imaz said Jan. 9 that his was "ready to invest more in Venezuela and triple production there in the next two or three years." Repsol currently produces 45,000 b/d of oil in Venezuela, Imaz said.

Whatever stakes the foreign companies have in Venezuelan joint ventures, the structure is no longer viable, an adviser to the Venezuelan Hydrocarbons Association said Jan. 12, on the condition of anonymity.

"We believe that the legal framework governing joint ventures is outdated," the advisor said, "and many companies want to migrate to the legal framework of operating agreements, if there are suitable and clear conditions for investment."