29/10/2026 by Jay Hatton
North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a privately-owned company, says it has already increased its Venezuelan oil production by 20,000 barrels each day since August.
The US Administration recently announced NABEP as a partner in an initiative it referred to as:
“The biggest oil deal in history.”
It currently operates three active rigs in Venezuela’s Junin area, within the massive Orinoco Oil Belt. Bloomberg quotes sources familiar with the company’s operations as saying the number of rigs in its operated fields will soon double. These include a new, recently arrived rig.
Chevron is currently the main US operator in Venezuela, with it also having operations in the Orinoco Belt. ExxonMobil, the maker of Mobil DTE hydraulic oil, is also reportedly considering a return to the country. This will likely involve a resolution to the $1 billion compensation it was awarded through international arbitration following the 2007 nationalisation of some assets.
Bloomberg’s source says NABEP has considerable ambition, however. Its 25-year plan has a target of having 60 active rigs in Venezuela. These will be supplemented by 70 units of heavy construction machinery. NABEP says its intention is:
“…to rapidly expand its operations in Lake Maracaibo and the Orinoco Belt with the near-term goal of increasing production to more than 1 million barrels of oil per day.”
The source told Bloomberg that the company had a daily output of roughly 223,500 barrels of oil equivalent in mid-October. The company’s ultimate goal is to multiply this by 10, but it has yet to release details on how this will be funded.
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