Venezuela's Hydrocarbons Regulation: The 20%–35% Fiscal Table That Redefines Oil Investment
Venezuela's Hydrocarbons Law Regulation is now in force (Gazette Ext. 7,052): 83 years later, it sets a 20%–35% fiscal table by project type. What remains at the Ministry's discretion is no longer the rate, but which category each oil contract falls into.
Eighty-three years after its last regulation, Venezuela has the implementation manual for its oil opening. Decree No. 5,381, published in Special Official Gazette No. 7,052, does not leave the fiscal rate to guesswork: it fixes, article by article, how much a project pays based on its category. This is not a framework open to case-by-case bargaining. It is a table.
But a fiscal table does not close every question. Discretion did not disappear: it moved one step back. It no longer sits in how much is paid —that is written down—, but in who decides which category a contract falls into. That is the variable an investor should watch from now on, not the rate.
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