Fossil Energy
Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has said that she wants ExxonMobil to return to the country’s oil sector on terms that provide legal certainty for its investments and operations.
She made this statement during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between ExxonMobil Investments and the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) in Caracas on 9 November.
Ms Rodríguez said that the memorandum had followed months of negotiations and covered both mature and undeveloped fields. She added that these fields hold billions of barrels of reserves.
‘I hope this memorandum will soon lead to concrete agreements that will quickly deliver the expected results of investments of this kind,’ she said.
The terms under which ExxonMobil would operate were central to its exit in 2007. The company rejected terms that would have given PDVSA control of its projects.
Subsequently, the government of then-President Hugo Chávez seized ExxonMobil’s interests in the Cerro Negro and La Ceiba projects. ExxonMobil held a 41.67% stake in Cerro Negro, which produced and upgraded extra-heavy crude from the Orinoco Belt. The company sought compensation through international arbitration.
Venezuela’s hydrocarbons minister has said that the government intends to use ExxonMobil’s technology to boost production in existing fields and recover more of the heavy and extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt.
