Venezuela News — Halliburton wins its assets back

Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered the return of Halliburton’s seized assets this week, clearing the U.S. oilfield-services company to restart work it abandoned in 2020. Two more American firms signed deals for the Orinoco belt, and acting president Delcy Rodríguez courted Washington in a rare interview. The biggest oil majors, though, are still holding back.

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Venezuela’s Supreme Court returns oilfield-services company Halliburton’s seized assets. On July 27, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered the return of assets it had seized from Halliburton, the world’s second-largest oilfield-services company, and cleared it to restart operations it shut down in December 2020 under U.S. sanctions. The ruling reversed earlier labor-court decisions that had valued the equipment at $6.6 million and ordered it auctioned to pay former workers, holding instead that the assets are “strategic and critical” to the country’s oil recovery. Halliburton had taken the seizure to the World Bank’s arbitration body in December 2025. Guacamaya

California oil producer Pacific Coast Energy approaches a deal to run Venezuelan fields. Pacific Coast Energy, a small independent California oil producer, is close to a deal to operate two blocks of Venezuelan oil fields and would take a majority stake, as Caracas pressed partners to sign by a late-July deadline. Chief executive Klaus Hasbo said the company has raised $800 million in equity, debt, and trade finance to fund the first phase of work. It is one of several smaller operators moving faster than the majors to lock in assets. Bloomberg

Acting president Delcy Rodríguez courts Washington as the U.S. oversees Venezuela’s oil money. In a July 30 interview with TIME, acting president Delcy Rodríguez said the return of U.S. companies is “the most important thing” for Venezuela’s recovery and confirmed she stays in regular contact with Secretary of State Marco Rubio by phone and WhatsApp. The magazine reported that Washington now oversees Venezuela’s oil revenues through an escrow-style arrangement that gives it significant leverage over government spending. On elections, Rodríguez said only that Venezuela “will hold elections when it is ready.” TIME

U.S.-based Liberty and Venezuela’s CANTV will build a subsea internet cable. Liberty Networks, part of U.S.-based Liberty Latin America, and CANTV, Venezuela’s state telecom, announced on August 2 a 378-kilometer subsea cable called Fenix, linking Willemstad in Curaçao to the coast near Caracas. The line will carry at least 14 terabits per second and connect onward to Liberty’s regional networks and a major data center in Miami. Neither the cost nor a completion date was disclosed. Developing Telecoms

Energy Sector

Venezuela’s refineries are too rusted to draw investors, executives tell Reuters. Venezuela’s largest refineries are running far below capacity after years without investment and recent earthquake damage, and industry executives statedthey are among the least likely assets to attract foreign money. A licensing law passed this month lets private companies operate refineries for the first time, but it also imposes a tax of up to 5 percent on their gross income, which analysts said makes the terms unattractive. The country still cannot refine enough fuel to meet its own demand of about 250,000 barrels a day. Reuters

Two U.S. firms sign deals to pump heavy crude in Venezuela’s Orinoco belt. Two American energy companies, Hunt Overseas Oil and Crossover Energy, signed agreements with Venezuela’s government to operate in the Orinoco belt, the country’s main region for heavy and extra-heavy crude. The deals were signed in the presence of Jarrod Agen, President Trump’s energy adviser. They are among the first concrete U.S. commitments since the sector reopened, even as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have so far only sent technical teams to evaluate. OilPrice

Economy

The bolívar holds near 749 to the dollar as the parallel-market gap persists. The official rate set by Venezuela’s central bank sat at 748.79 bolívars to the dollar on August 3, while the parallel rate tracked by Monitor Dólar was 839.82, leaving a gap of about 12 percent between the two. The spread has held rather than narrowed, a sign that dollar scarcity in the informal market continues even as official activity picks up. Monitor Dólar

Opinion

Seven months after Maduro’s fall, the biggest oil companies still won’t commit. OilPrice argued this week that despite Venezuela’s reserves and calmer politics, the largest oil majors are holding back. ExxonMobil pulled back after failing to secure the assets it wanted, and Chevron has lifted output to nearly 300,000 barrels a day through repairs rather than betting fresh billions. National production sits near 1.07 million barrels a day, up from 937,000 a year ago but far below past peaks. As one analyst put it, the open houses draw crowds, “but then nobody calls.” OilPrice

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