KEY POINTS
- Eni will operate Venezuela’s 35-billion-barrel Junin 5 heavy oil field.
- Chevron plans to invest $7bn to raise Venezuelan output to nearly 600,000 bpd by 2031.
- New deals signal a renewed push to attract international capital into Venezuela’s oil sector.
Italian energy company Eni has signed a new agreement with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, to take operatorship of the Junin 5 oil field in the country’s Orinoco Basin.
The agreement, signed on September 2, will move the project from its existing Petrojunin joint venture structure into a new contractual framework under which Eni will assume full responsibility for the field’s technical, financial and commercial management.
The new arrangement is based on a 25-year Hydrocarbons Productive Participation Contract, with the possibility of an extension.
Junin 5 is described by Eni as a super-giant heavy oil field containing about 35 billion barrels of certified oil in place. However, current production is only around 12,000 barrels per day, highlighting the significant potential for production growth if investment and development activities accelerate.
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said the agreement represented an important step towards reviving Venezuela’s oil and gas sector and reaffirmed the company’s long-standing presence in the country. Eni already has a significant footprint across Venezuela’s energy industry.
The Italian company is involved in natural gas development through Cardon IV, a company jointly owned by Eni and Repsol, and operates the Perla field under the Cardon IV licence.
Perla is described as the largest offshore gas field discovered in Latin America and currently supplies a significant share of Venezuela’s domestic gas consumption.
Eni also owns a 26 per cent interest in the PetroSucre joint venture, while PDVSA holds the remaining 74 per cent. PetroSucre operates the offshore Corocoro oil field.
The company also has interests in the Supermetanol petrochemical business and holds six licences covering areas in the Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Paria and Orinoco Basin.
In 2025, Eni’s equity hydrocarbon production in Venezuela stood at 64,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with much of the output coming from the Perla gas field.
Eni already has a significant footprint across Venezuela’s energy industry.
The Italian company is involved in natural gas development through Cardon IV, a company jointly owned by Eni and Repsol, and operates the Perla field under the Cardon IV licence.
Perla is described as the largest offshore gas field discovered in Latin America and currently supplies a significant share of Venezuela’s domestic gas consumption.
Eni also owns a 26 per cent interest in the PetroSucre joint venture, while PDVSA holds the remaining 74 per cent. PetroSucre operates the offshore Corocoro oil field.
The company also has interests in the Supermetanol petrochemical business and holds six licences covering areas in the Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Paria and Orinoco Basin.
In 2025, Eni’s equity hydrocarbon production in Venezuela stood at 64,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with much of the output coming from the Perla gas field.
Chevron commits $7bn to Venezuela
Separately, US oil major Chevron announced plans to invest about $7bn to increase its crude oil production in Venezuela to nearly 600,000 barrels per day by 2031.
The planned investment is part of a broader restructuring of Chevron’s existing joint ventures in the country and is expected to support additional development, increased production and future investment.
Chevron said it had also been assigned additional acreage in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, where the company already has an established presence.
The company estimates that its total production costs in Venezuela will remain below $20 per barrel, supported by the country’s large resource base. Under the updated agreements, Chevron’s Petroindependencia joint venture has received rights to develop the adjacent Carabobo-1 and Carabobo-2-South-A areas.
Chevron’s subsidiary holds a 49 per cent interest in Petroindependencia.
The additional acreage expands the joint venture’s operating footprint in the Orinoco Belt, where Chevron is seeking to increase production of Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude.
The move follows an agreement reached in April under which Chevron increased its working interest in Petroindependencia to 49 per cent and received development rights for the Ayacucho 8 area, located next to its Petropiar joint venture.
Chevron said its three Venezuelan joint ventures had increased production by 15 per cent year-to-date.
