Houston — The largest oilfield service firm, SLB, is planning a quick return to Venezuela’s oilfields following the broad relaxing of U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil industry, its chief executive said on Friday.
The U.S. on Wednesday lifted most restrictions on Venezuela’s oil industry for six months to produce, sell and export oil. The move temporarily suspended sanctions imposed since 2019 on the OPEC country’s oil and gas industry.
“We will be responding and as fast as we can mobilizing resources and equipment that are there to respond and participate to this reopening,” SLB Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said during a call with investors
SLB, formerly Schlumberger, is among the very few oil service companies with drilling rigs and specialized equipment in Venezuela, which could speed up any new contract with state-run oil company PDVSA or its joint ventures.
The company, along with Baker Hughes, Halliburton and Weatherford had been granted licenses that allowed them to maintain limited presence in Venezuela but restricted their activities, especially with PDVSA, which remains under some U.S. sanctions.
With only one active drilling rig versus more than 80 in 2014, Venezuela is not expected to be able to increase output significantly in the coming six months.
But specialized oil equipment is needed urgently.
U.S. oil major Chevron Corp has planned a drilling campaign for 2024 to expand joint output in Venezuela to some 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from current 140,000 bpd, which will require at least two specialized drilling rigs.
Le Peuch cautioned it was too soon to say how much SLB could achieve in short order. “But its potential is upside if you’ve got (facilities in place). Indeed that’s great,” he said.
Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio – Reuters
