Primavera Infinita and Alvorada's fields: who reassigns the Orinoco Belt and how

On September 2, at the Miraflores Palace, Primavera Infinita signed with the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and PDVSA for the Budare-Elotes block. That same day it was reported, without confirmation from the companies or from Washington, that its co-founder Fred Ehrsam was also seeking Boca, Guico and Guara, three Orinoco Belt blocks operated by Brazil's Alvorada, and that U.S. authorities were weighing revoking those contracts. Two months later, Primavera has a team and says it is preparing to operate; Alvorada is still listed as operator of those fields and has announced investment for 2027. Venezuela's hydrocarbons law says how an operator is chosen. What has not been made public is which path was followed in each case.

What changed in two months

In September, our piece on Primavera Infinita, in Spanish, ranked the counterparties of the opening by the strength of their paper and found the ladder upside down: the most binding instrument was held by the youngest company. Since then, the company has stepped out of the shadows.

Its October 13 statement names its three co-founders: Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase; Manuel Iribarren, a 28-year-old Venezuelan entrepreneur; and Dheeraj Verma, former president of Quantum Energy Partners. The company describes itself as headquartered in Houston and Caracas.

It also presented a team that is not improvised. Oscar Quintero, who led Occidental's enhanced oil recovery division, will run operations in Venezuela; three executives who were part of Chevron Venezuela's leadership take over the commercial, finance and legal areas, and the head of security comes from the U.S. National Security Council.

The company says it is preparing to take over field operations under the September 2 agreements and will announce milestones in the coming months. In October, Iribarren set the short-term goal at 100,000 barrels a day and said the company is committed to investing a substantial amount of capital, without saying how much, adding that at this stage it did not want to go into details. Ehrsam, one of the three investors, is putting in his own money and, in an interview, compared the opportunity to the once-in-a-generation bets.

The size of the promise

The block it signed for is not new. In April 2024, LNG Energy Group announced that a subsidiary had been conditionally awarded the Budare-Elotes and Nipa-Nardo-Niebla contracts, five fields then producing about 3,000 barrels a day combined, in exchange for providing the investment and keeping between 50% and 56% of the output. In late February 2026, according to reports, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons suspended 19 participation contracts to review the companies' credentials. Transparencia Venezuela's sector register later records the rescission of the LNG subsidiary's contract and the assignment of its fields to Primavera.

That block has already had a contract that did not survive review.

Primavera's goal is 100,000 barrels a day, and the stated production target for the project exceeds 70,000. Between those figures and the 3,000 barrels the two contracts produced together in 2024 lie wells to repair, pressure to restore, water to separate, power and equipment. That is Quintero's trade, and his hiring is the most solid thing the company has shown. What a hire does not solve is capital: the committed investment, the contract's term and the revenue split have not been disclosed.

The fields already have an operator

Boca, Guico and Guara are not empty. They are operated by Alvorada Heavy Industries, a Brazilian company founded in 2023 and backed by Galapagos Capital, the investment firm of a former BTG Pactual partner. In April, its chairman, Paulo Buzanelli, said it was producing about 4,000 barrels a day across the three blocks, a medium crude useful for diluting the Orinoco Belt's extra-heavy oil, that it planned to reach 20,000 within two years and that the company had acquired those contracts three years earlier.

Alvorada also has a foothold in the United States. In July it bought the small Texas producer Calistoga Energy Reserves to set up a U.S. base, according to its chairman, and it channels its Venezuela investment through Alvorada Holdings USA, a Texas-based company. In November it announced it will invest $70 million in its current operations in 2027; it has 250 employees and runs its operations from El Tigre.

In September it was reported, without official confirmation from Washington or Caracas, that U.S. authorities were weighing revoking those contracts, in a restructuring that, according to that account, replaces some Maduro-era operators with investors aligned with Trump, and that Alvorada was seeking talks with U.S. officials to keep its investment. Alvorada and Primavera declined to comment; Ehrsam did not respond.

No decision on those contracts has been published. As of October 31, Transparencia Venezuela's sector register still listed the Alvorada & Cladoca consortium as operator of Boca, Guara and Guico, and did not include it among the displaced companies.

Who reassigns, and by what rule

This is the question that matters to anyone investing alongside these companies or serving them, and the law answers it on paper. January's reform of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law provides that, to select operators, the Ministry "shall promote competition among several offers" and set up committees to fix the conditions and choose the companies. The exception is written too: "for reasons of public interest or special circumstances of the activities, operators may be chosen directly, subject to prior approval by the Council of Ministers."

What has not been made public is which of the two paths took Primavera to Budare-Elotes: neither the terms of a tender nor a Council of Ministers approval. Nor has it been made public which rule would apply if Alvorada's fields changed hands, or the contract currently covering them. And what is reported is that the fate of those contracts is being weighed in Washington, which does not appear in that article.

The opacity has an earlier legal basis: the 2020 Anti-Blockade Law made secrecy the rule in state business, and it has not been repealed (we explain it here, in Spanish).

For a supplier, a bank or a local partner, the risk is no longer only that the counterparty is young. It is that a producing contract can be revisited without the applied rule being published, and what applies to Alvorada could later apply to Primavera.

The license that has yet to appear

September's question remains open. OFAC General License 46E, in force since September 28, authorizes transactions in Venezuelan crude by an "established U.S. entity" and defines the term with a date: organized in the United States on or before January 29, 2025.

According to press reports, Primavera Infinita was formed in 2026.

Its October 13 statement does not say under what authorization it will operate. It could be an older parent company, a specific license that is not published, or a contract whose performance awaits that permit. All three fit what is known, and none is documented. The same question applies to Alvorada, which channels its investment through a Texas company and bought another in July: which entity signs, since when it has existed and under which license.

What to watch

Five facts would show how this is resolved. The tender terms or the Council of Ministers approval that took Primavera to Budare-Elotes. A published decision on Alvorada's contracts, from the Ministry of Hydrocarbons or PDVSA. A license or authorization naming either company, or the entity that signed for each. Contracts with suppliers and staff at Budare-Elotes, with written terms. And the block's first production figure.

Primavera said it would announce significant milestones in the coming months; Alvorada, that it will invest in 2027. Those are the ones that count.

In September, the ladder of the opening was upside down because the youngest company held the firmest paper. Two months later, that company has a team and, as reported, interest in fields another company operates, while that other company announces investment for 2027. The law has a rule for choosing operators; what is not in sight is how it was applied, for Alvorada or for Primavera.