Venezuela expects close to $76 billion of investment in its oil and gas sector over the next five years, Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said on Saturday. The figure was presented as the government's expectation for the capital it anticipates entering the country's hydrocarbons industry over the period. Spread evenly across the five years, the projected total would work out to an average of roughly $15 billion a year.
The projection is an expectation rather than a confirmed spending programme, and the announcement did not include a breakdown of the total by project, operator, field or subsector. It also did not specify how the investment would be phased across the five-year period, which companies would be expected to provide it, or which parts of the oil and gas value chain it would prioritise. Rodriguez spoke in her capacity as acting president, presenting the figure as the government's outlook for the sector's development.
Because the projection covers both oil and gas, it applies to the sector as a whole rather than to a single segment of the industry. The five-year horizon frames the figure as a medium-term planning target rather than a commitment to near-term spending, leaving the pace and composition of the investment to be defined as the period unfolds.
For engineers, operators and service companies that follow Venezuela, the announcement sets a stated benchmark for the level of capital deployment the government anticipates in the sector over the medium term. How the expected investment translates into concrete projects, contracts and field activity will be the measure against which the projection is judged as the five-year period progresses.
Source: Rigzone
