Two Texas-based oil companies are among the first to enter agreements with Venezuela, following the United States' capture of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
According toVenezuelan state media, SLB and Hunt Oil Company signed contracts with state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) on Tuesday in Houston.
SLB is a Houston-based oilfield services company and Hunt Oil Company is an independent exploration and production company based in Dallas.
"Hunt Oil Company wants to play a constructive role in revitalizing and growing Venezuela's oil and gas production," CEO Hunter L. Hunt said in a statement. "We look forward to doing so with our unwavering commitment to train and advance the local workforce, to protect and preserve our surrounding environment, and to bring long-term benefits to the communities in which we will operate."
SLB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since Maduro's capture in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has encouraged American oil companies to invest in Venezuela's resources and help ramp up production in the Latin American country.
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Still, many top U.S. energy executives haveremained hesitantto get involved in Venezuela, facing uncertainty about the country's political stability. Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said these companies are also unsure how changing U.S. foreign policy could impact their relationships with Venezuela, once Trump leaves office.
"That's left many U.S. companies looking for investments that may pay off in the short term or that don't require a huge capital infusion," he said.
Addressing U.S. energy executives in Houston this week, Venezuela's oil minister, Paula Henao, touted reforms to her country's oil laws following Maduro's removal. She said country's agreements with U.S. companies offer a chance to evaluate opportunities for investment in Venezuela.
"The invitation is that we can sit down, we can evaluate, ‘What is the opportunity in Venezuela?'" she said in Spanish during a speech at the Venezuela Energy Week Houston Showcase on Wednesday.
PDVSA Executive Vice President Jovanny Martínez echoed Henao's sentiments in his remarks at the conference.
"In Venezuela, we have an industry that represents an opportunity for the development of great deals," he said in Spanish.
James Chester, CEO of Energy Capital & Power and organizer of Venezuela Energy Week, said it's significant that Venezuela's energy leaders have come to Houston.
"They’re not waiting for people to come to Caracas, although people are coming to Caracas," he said.
Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said SLB's and Hunt's contracts with Venezuela are a meaningful milestone after many U.S. companies have remained hesitant to get involved there.
"This could open up a new wave of investment," he said. "Still, we have to wait and see if companies actually deploy their resources."
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