Faja Archives - Energy Analytics Institute (EAI)

ANALYSIS: twin quakes shake more than buildings, rattle the case for IOCs re‑entry

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 20.Jul.2026, Words: 1400) — On 24 Jun. 2026, 2 powerful earthquakes — the first of 7.2 and the second of 7.5 on the Richter scale — hit Vargas state and parts of Caracas, reopening an old wound in Venezuela’s collective memory. For […]

ANALYSIS: quakes expose leadership void in a Venezuela rich in oil, poor in governance

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 15.Jul.2026, Words: 1,401) — The dual earthquakes of 24 Jun. 2026, with registering magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 and within 1 minute apart, have delivered yet another serious blow to Vargas state and parts of Caracas. For Venezuelans, the symbolism is hard […]

ANALYSIS: Chevron’s Venezuela pivot; doubling down on heavy oil, deferring gas

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 29.Apr.2026, Words: 2,300) — Chevron Corporation’s latest asset swap in Venezuela — exiting gas exposure in favor of heavier oil-weighted positions — is more than an internal portfolio reshuffle. From my vantage point, after years covering Venezuela and wider Latin American […]

EAI brief: Chevron Corp. eyes growth in Argentina, Guyana and Venezuela

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA (By Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 25.Feb.2026, Words: 149) — Chevron Corporation eyes future production growth in Argentina, Guyana and Venezuela, according to new details revealed to investors in a Feb. 2026 presentation. RELATED: BP’S EVP BIRRELL SAYS TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO DISCOVERIES MOVE UP IN QUEUE Argentina

Delcy Rodríguez and Chris Wright tour Petroindependencia in Venezuela’s Faja

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Feb.2026, Words: 232) — Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez and the US secretary of energy Christopher Wright continued their high-level bilateral agenda with a tour of the facilities of Petroindependencia S.A. in the Orinoco Oil Belt “Hugo Chávez.” During the inspection of […]

EAI brief: US energy secretary Wright visits Venezuelan oil installations [photo journal]

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Feb.2026, Words: 94) — US secretary of energy Christopher Wright visit Venezuelan oil fields to explore ways to boost oil production, update infrastructure, and unlock the country’s enormous economic potential. “Stronger commerce will benefit Americans AND Venezuelans, while delivering peace and prosperity […]

EAI brief: Venezuela eyes production exceeding 1.5 MMb/d by YE:26

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Feb.2026, Words: 106) — Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez and the US secretary of energy Christopher Wright discussed a plan to increase crude oil production in the OPEC country. This, during a tour by the authorities of the Petroindependencia S.A. facilities located […]

Geopolitics loom large over Big Oil earnings as investors seek Venezuela details

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Sheila Dang, Reuters , 29.Jan.2026, Words: 863) — Exxon Mobil and Chevron executives may face more questions about their investment opportunities in Venezuela than their actual quarterly earnings when they hold calls with analysts on Friday. The U.S. capture and removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month opened […]

ANALYSIS: Venezuela, Siembra Petrolera and Chávez’ 235 bn bbl Faja incorporation goal

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts, Energy Analytics Institute, 16.Jan.2026, Words: 370) — Stepping back in time, in Aug. 2006, Venezuela’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (or MENPET as it was known in the early 2000s) and state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) revealed plans that would see the Caribbean country incorporate 235.3 […]

ANALYSIS: Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chávez’ nationalization decree of 2005

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA (By Ana Sanches, Energy Analytics Institute, 16.Jan.2026, Words: 176) — For what it’s worth, Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chávez announced a nationalization decree in 2005 aimed at regaining Venezuela’s sovereignty over its oil sector. The decree called for state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to assume at least […]

ANALYSIS: Venezuela’s 55,000 km2 Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt or Faja

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts with Ana Sanches and Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 13.Jan.2026, Words: 400) — The Hugo Chávez Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt, or the Faja, is home to estimated original oil in place (OOIP) of 1,360 billion barrels. Stated another way, that is 1.36 trillion barrels. […]

EAI brief: a renewed desire to exploit Venezuela’s Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt or Faja

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 8.Jan.2026, Words: 399) — Venezuela’s oil sector is again in the spotlight. This time in the immediate aftermath of US military actions aimed at a regime change in Venezuela, and amid an ongoing pivot by Big Oil and other energy companies back […]

EAI brief: US energy stocks from Exxon to Chevron rise on Venezuelan oil sector prospects

ATLANTA, GEORGIA (By Chad Archey, Energy Analytics Institute, 6.Jan.2026, Words: 181) — Select US energy stocks were on the front foot on major stock exchanges on the prospect of returning to Venezuela after the ouster of its leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in the early AM hours of […]

US oil companies gain after Trump signals access to Venezuela’s reserves

WASHINGTON, DC (By Arunima Kumar, Reuters, 5.Jan.2026, Words: 350) — U.S. oil companies’ shares jumped on Monday, fueled by the prospect of access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would take control of the South American nation following the arrest of its president. Venezuela holds […]

Trump quietly renews Chevron’s license in Venezuela, marking shift in US policy

MIAMI, FLORIDA (By Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 24.Jul.2025, Words: 1,030) — In a marked shift in U.S. policy toward Venezuela, the Trump administration has quietly approved a new license allowing oil giant Chevron to restart its operations in the South American nation, according to sources with direct knowledge of the […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: upgrading very heavy crudes, Orinoco v heavy Arabian

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Pietro D. Pitts and Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 13.Jun.2025, Words: 2,800) — The increasing global demand for petroleum products has led to greater production of unconventional crude resources such as the extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) and bitumens found in Venezuela, Canada, as […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: the Petrocedeño (formerly Sincor) upgrader

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 12.Jun.2025, Words: 702) — The Sincor upgrader was built in an area of over 200 hectares with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (b/d) of extra heavy crude oil (EHCO) of an average density of 8.3° […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: production and export grades, upgraded API properties [table]

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 11.Jun.2025, Words: 560) — Venezuela, despite ongoing US sanctions meant to halt the country’s economic growth with an ultimate aim on producing a regime change, continues to produce and export a variety of crude oil grades with gravities […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: 4 ways to extract Faja crudes (VAPEX, CSS, THAI and SAGD)

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 10.Jun.2025, Words: 900) — Heavy oil is similar to conventional reserves in many respects, and is superior in at least 1 respect: exploration risk is virtually nonexistent. The hydrocarbon industry knows where the reserves are located, the problem is […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: opportunity loss of 2.1 MMb/d from 6 new proposed upgraders

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 9.Jun.2025, Words: 1,600) — Proposals for 6 new joint ventures (JVs) in Venezuela’s Orinoco heavy oil belt, or Faja, aimed to increase the South American country’s heavy and extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) production capacity by an additional 2,090,000 […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: 4 original upgraders Sincor, Petrozuata, Cerro Negro and Hamaca

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 8.Jun.2025, Words: 1,143) — Venezuela is blessed with numerous heavy-oil reservoirs, but none compares to the largest accumulation of heavy and ultra heavy oil in the world – the 55,000 km2 (21,240 sq. mile) Orinoco heavy oil belt, also […]

Venezuela’s ‘Black Gold’: a brief history of heavy oil in Venezuela

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA / HOUSTON, TEXAS (Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 6.Jun.2025, Words: 585) — In 1914, Venezuela’s first important heavy oil field, Mene Grande, was discovered. Initial production from the shallow sands located at 550ft averaged 264 barrels per day (b/d) per well of oil with API gravity down […]

EAI Andean NRG dashboard 4Q:24 [pdf download]

HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 28.Dec.2024, Words: 60) — Energy Analytics Institute‘s Andean NRG Dashboard 4Q:24 with upstream, downstream, midstream, LNG, renewable, new energies and other updates from Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. ____________________ By Editors at Energy Analytics Institute. […]

NRGBriefs: May Day Celebrations, No Expropriations Expected

(Energy Analytics Institute, 1.May.2022) — Energy briefs including Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Keith Rowley and Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart Young visiting Washington, DC to discuss regional energy matters; May Day (1 May) celebrations taking place across the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region but no […]

FACT BOX: Why it’s necessary to upgrade Venezuela’s heavy oils

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 29.Apr.2022, Words: 108) — The purpose for upgrading Venezuela’s heavy and extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) is to achieve substantial changes in values that determine the quality of the oil. Such changes include: increasing the API value; reducing viscosity; reducing the content […]

EAI brief analysis: Venezuela’s Faja contains 1,360 billion barrels of OOIP

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (By Piero Stewart, Energy Analytics Institute, 22.Apr.2022, Words: 130) — Venezuela is home to the Hugo Chávez Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt, also known as the Faja, which contains original oil in place (OOIP) estimated at 1,360 billion barrels, making it the world’s largest accumulation of heavy and extra-heavy […]

Venezuela Oil Output Sliding, Fields Shut Due To Fire

(Reuters, 4.May.2020) — Venezuela’s oilfields produced 687,000 barrels of crude last Saturday, up from 653,000 barrels on Friday but below the 718,000 barrels per day (bpd) the country said it produced in March, according to documents seen by Reuters on Monday. The drop came as output in the country’s Orinoco […]

Fire Reduces Venezuelan Heavy Crude Flow

(Reuters, 28.Apr.2020) — The latest fire to erupt at one of Venezuelan state-owned PdV’s oil installations has temporarily knocked out up to 130,000 b/d of heavy crude production from three of the firm’s joint ventures with foreign partners. PdV said today it has extinguished the blaze, which broke out on […]

Maduro Pledges 30 MMbbls To Back Cryptocurrency

(Oilprice.com, Irina Slav, 21.Nov.2019) — Venezuela will use some 30 million barrels of oil it has in storage as backing for its national cryptocurrency, the petro, Reuters reports, citing a speech by President Nicolas Maduro. “I will deliver these 30 million of barrels as a liquid, physical, material backing for […]

Don’t Count On Oil To Reignite Latin America

(Project Syndicate, Mauricio Cárdenas, 5.Nov.2019) — Some regard Latin America as the world’s new oil frontier, and think that the region could potentially add three million barrels per day to global output during the next decade. But, although Brazil is well placed to ramp up production, Mexico and Venezuela seem […]

Venezuelan Oil Output Sinks To 500,000 B/D

(Argus, 14.May.2019) — Venezuela’s crude production has dropped to around 500,000 b/d as sluggish export loadings and replete storage force state-owned PdV to shut in wells, four company officials tell Argus. The decline is most pronounced in the Orinoco heavy oil belt, where production has dwindled to less than 200,000 […]

Venezuela’s Oil Industry Implosion Reaches Chevron

(Oilprice.com, Tsvetana Paraskova, 25.Apr.2019) — Massive blackouts in Venezuela in March and April have drastically reduced oil production at Chevron’s biggest oil joint venture in the country, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing data that it had compiled from company sources. Chevron holds a 30-percent stake in Petropiar, a joint venture […]

Venezuela’s April Crude Exports Rise To 955,000 b/d After Blackouts

(S&P Global Platts, 24.Apr.2019) — Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA is set to export 955,000 b/d of crude in April, up from 843,000 b/d in March, when several blackouts crippled export infrastructure, according to the company’s monthly export plan. Asian refiners are taking 786,000 b/d, or 82% of April’s shipments, up from […]

Venezuela Fails To Sell Its Heavy Crude Amid Dwindling Supply

Venezuela Oil Output Strains Under Sanctions

Fire Hits Pumping Station, Disrupts Venezuela Crude Transportation

Company Representatives Discuss Faja Plans For 2019

Chevron Stayed In Venezuela Long After Rivals Quit

(Wall Street Journal, Kejal Vyas and Bradley Olson, 8.Nov.2018) — For nearly a century, Chevron Corp. has weathered dictatorships, coups and nationalization drives to keep pumping oil in Venezuela. But recently, executives at the last U.S. oil major in the country have debated whether it may be time to get out, […]

Venezuela Doubles Down on Chinese Money to Reverse Crisis

(AP, 20.Sep.2018) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday that new investments from China will help his country dramatically boost its oil production, doubling down on financing from the Asian nation to turn around its crashing economy. Already a major economic partner, China has agreed to invest US$5 billion more […]

PDVSA To Reopen Damaged Port Dock By Month’s End

(Reuters, Marianna Parraga, 12.Sep.2018) — PDVSA expects to reopen the south dock of Venezuela’s main oil port Jose by the end of September, easing strains on crude exports delayed due to a tanker collision last month, according to internal trade documents from the state-run oil firm seen by Reuters. Last […]

Venezuela Oil Sales to US Fell in August

(Reuters, 4.Sep.2018) — Venezuela’s crude sales to the United States fell in August for the second month in a row as exports of two of the South American country’s main grades dropped following port interruptions by a tanker collision, according to Thomson Reuters Trade Flows data. Venezuela’s state-run oil company […]

PDVSA Inks $430 Mln Deal in Effort to Boost Oil Output

(S&P Global, Mery Mogollon, 30.Aug.2018) — State-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA signed a $430 million service agreement with seven companies to boost its oil production by 641,000 b/d, company president Manuel Quevedo said in a statement Wednesday. The companies on the other side of deal are: Well Services Cavallino, Petro […]

Venezuelan Oil Port Working Partially After Collision

(Reuters, Marianna Parraga, 28.Aug.2018) — Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose is operating partially following a weekend tanker collision that halted one of its three docks, curtailing state-run PDVSA’s ability to export upgraded crude and receive imported diluents, three sources with knowledge of the incident said on Tuesday. PDVSA has […]

Aruba’s San Nicolás Refinery to Take Faja Oil

(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 25.Aug.2018) — Valero’s old Aruba refinery will be revitalized as an upgrader. PDVSA announced the San Nicolás Refinery located in Aruba will be converted into an upgrader in order to process extra-heavy oil from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt, also known as the […]

PDVSA and ConocoPhillips Reach New, Positive Settlement

(Citgo, 21.Aug.2018) — As officially reported by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and ConocoPhillips, the two companies recently reached a settlement agreement resulting from the nationalization of the Hamaca and Petrozuata projects in 2007. As background, ConocoPhillips initiated arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), demanding that PDVSA pay […]

Venezuela’s Citgo Refineries At Risk Of Seizure

(Forbes, Robert Rapie, 12.Aug.2018) – In 2007, following Venezuela’s expropriation of billions of dollars of assets from U.S. companies like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, I suggested a potential remedy. Since Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.) owns the Citgo refineries in the U.S., I felt the companies that […]

PdV, Joint Ventures Miss Oil Targets

(Argus, 9.Aug.2018) – Venezuela’s state-owned PdV and its joint ventures fell short of officially targeted crude production by more than 125,000 b/d in July, according to an internal PdV upstream report obtained by Argus. The steepest shortfalls were registered in the Orinoco heavy oil belt — long touted by the […]

Venezuela Is Oil Market’s Bizarro World

(S&P Global Platts, Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, 7.Aug.2018) – Venezuela’s state oil and gas company PDVSA cut its debt to Russia’s top crude producer Rosneft by $400 million in the second quarter to $3.6 billion as of the end of June, Rosneft’s second-quarter results presentation showed Tuesday. Rosneft agreed prepayment deals for […]

Former Cerro Negro Workers Still Seek Payment

(Energy Analytics Institute, Piero Stewart, 23.Jul.2018) – It has been 11 years and the 7,000 direct and indirect Venezuelan workers of US oil company Exxon Mobil still haven’t received their social benefits or other liquidations. Those payment were assumed by the government of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez when his […]

China to Invest $250 mln to Boost Venezuela’s Oil Sector

(Bloomberg, 4.Jul.2018) – Venezuela’s distressed oil sector may get some much needed financing from China, Finance Minister Simon Zerpa said after meetings with officials from China Development Bank and China National Petroleum Corporation. China Development Bank will invest more than US$250 million to boost Venezuela oil production in the Orinoco […]