The Venezuelan government is circulating a draft of regulations as part of its newly enacted oil law, highly anticipated by companies planning to invest in the country’s increased oil production.
A 63-page draft reviewed by Bloomberg sets details on technical, operational, fiscal and control provisions for companies that work in the country’s oil and gas fields. It specifies standards for private companies’ activities in areas previously monopolized by Petróleos de Venezuela SA, such as oil refining, upgrading and trading. It also abrogates the country’s 1943 oil law and 1969 regulations.
PDVSA has also begun circulating a proposed contract to energy companies interested in working in the Latin American nation.
Regulations and contract models were long-awaited by the oil industry after the new hydrocarbons law was enacted in January, not long after the US forcibly removed former president Nicolas Maduro and allowed his No. 2, Delcy Rodriguez, to assume the presidency. The framework details the extent of Venezuela’s opening to foreign investment and relinquishment of decades of strict state control.
A proposed model of contracts to energy companies began circulating among companies in early May. Venezuela’s information and oil ministries didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Clauses of the regulations cover “novel topics” for the country’s oil industry, including “domestic utilization, unitization, data reversion to the state, greenhouse gas effects, and monitoring to name a few,” Miami-based arbitrator and energy specialist Elisabeth Eljuri wrote in a LinkedIn post on Friday. “It seems to suggest that it’s mandatory to implement enhanced recovery and secondary recovery in every project.”
The US is working with Venezuela’s government to bring its economy into the international financial system, after years of isolation under US sanctions. The US Treasury began lifting oil and financial sanctions as part of the three-phase program for Venezuela, which include stabilization, economic recovery and political transition.
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