Venezuela News — Houston lines up for Venezuela's oil

Eight months after Washington promised U.S. companies would rush back into Venezuela's oil fields, not one petroleum deal has been finalized, and the blame is now landing on the Energy Department itself. A bipartisan Senate resolution pressed for free elections and the release of political prisoners, while a Houston showcase and fresh investor visits kept the private-sector push alive.

Politics

Washington's own Energy Department becomes the holdup on Venezuela oil deals. Nearly eight months after President Trump predicted U.S. companies would rapidly rebuild Venezuela's oil industry, not a single new petroleum deal with an American firm has been finalized, and that the Energy Department is largely to blame. Officials there, who have little international oil-industry experience, have pushed a slower approach that works more collaboratively with Caracas, frustrating the White House, Congress, and the industry. The July agreements signed by Hunt Overseas Oil and Crossover Energy remain preliminary, with no production commitments behind them. Axios

Senators Cruz and Shaheen introduce a bipartisan resolution on Venezuela's elections. On August 4, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced a bipartisan resolution reaffirming U.S. support for free, fair, and transparent elections in Venezuela. It calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners and for guarantees that opposition figures, including María Corina Machado, can safely return and take part in political activity. Five more senators from both parties co-sponsored it, among them Rick Scott (R-FL) and Tim Kaine (D-VA). U.S. Senate

Energy Sector

Houston hosts a Venezuela oil showcase on August 19 as U.S. service firms line up. Energy Capital & Power is holding a Venezuela Energy Week showcase in Houston on August 19, backed by Venezuela's Hydrocarbons Ministry and the state oil company PDVSA, with Hydrocarbons Minister Paula Henao delivering the keynote. The Houston oilfield-services companies expected to attend include SLB, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Weatherford, the contractors Venezuela needs to restore output. Organizers billed it as a warm-up to Venezuela Energy Week 2027 in Caracas next February. Energy Capital & Power

Investors keep flying into Caracas even as big bets stay rare. Dozens of hedge-fund managers, corporate executives, and advisers from the United States and Latin America have been flying into Caracas for closed-door meetings to weigh opportunities in the reopening market. Reforms have dropped the longstanding requirement that PDVSA hold a majority stake in joint projects, letting private companies operate fields directly and keep more of the profit. Even so, few visitors have committed real money, and most deals so far are small. CNN

Investment firm LATAM Energy Partners plans to buy Venezuelan oil assets this quarter. Roy Ellis, chairman of the investment firm LATAM Energy Partners, told La República the firm is negotiating to close and announce several purchases of mature Venezuelan oil fields for rehabilitation this quarter. Ellis called Venezuela's proximity a U.S. advantage, with its crude reaching North America in about 45 to 50 days, and estimated it would take eight to ten years to lift national output to 3 million barrels a day from roughly 1.3 million now. La República

Economy

The bolívar slips toward 758 to the dollar as the parallel-market gap holds near 13 percent. The official rate set by Venezuela's central bank was 757.54 bolívars to the dollar on August 10, while the parallel rate tracked by Monitor Dólar sat at 853.38, a gap of about 13 percent. Both rates are weaker than a week earlier, when the official rate was 748.79 and the parallel 839.82, a sign that dollar scarcity in the informal market persists even as official activity picks up. Monitor Dólar

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